The Sin War
by DarkestVampire
Summary: "When the battle of the high heavens and the burning hells falls upon mortal soil, it is called the Sin War." Integra didn't think she would ever have to deal with such things in her lifetime, but then on that one day, 20 years after Millennium, the earth cracked open and Hell poured out of it. - Warning, many OCs. Rated for violence and foul language, possibly more later.
1. 00: Prolog

Our story begins in an age of darkness.

Dinosaurs have come and gone, and man has learned to walk, create fire, clothing and tools- from this point, the first of our chapters are carved in stone.

These tales of old tell of a troublesome time, when the first warlords reigned and man was beginning to establish itself as the dominant force- soon they would discover how to use metals, but first they would face annihilation.

The skies were dark as the night, the rivers flowing red as blood and any who drank from them perished the next day, so vile was the water that ran through the land anywhere near the Great Chasm, as it had become known. A mighty abyss that led so deep, a man´s soul could get lost in its endless void.

The Great Chasm was where the first of them came from- bearing weapons not of this world, with eyes and mouths as hot as fire, their bodies clad in black scales. Then their animals came, beasts the size of mammoth and buffalo that drew carts that could spew fire- often the dark ones rode on their backs, chucking spears and slinging death at anyone down below. If anyone had ever asked what they wanted, they did not live long enough to tell... or perhaps, their demands were so extreme it simply didn't matter. The fact was that entire villages and clans had fallen to them, and they would soon spread past the ocean... had it not been for the druids, and the men from above.

Legends speak of creatures even more bizzare than the Dark Ones. Bearing wings, but unlike any bird. Wielding swords, but nothing like that exists on earth. They speak a language none could speak, but everyone could understand- the druids call it "tongues", and taught themselves to speak it like they do.

None of the clan leaders trusted the druids further than the doorstep to their house, but where the druids were, the Dark Ones couldn't go. The Winged Ones did something to them that made the Dark Ones afraid of them, and in the coming battles the druids would use what could only be described as magic to drive the armies back to the Great Hole, and those who resisted the druids perished like sand.

One last time, the Dark Ones chose to stand around the Great Chasm, and faced the druids with all their might. Many fell, as even the druids could not withstand the entire force on their own- but as the druids were about to lose control of the battle, the Winged Ones came from above once more, and with them, the stones.

Driving the Dark Ones back down into the Chasm, the Stones rained from the sky like lightning, landing upright and burying themselves partially into the ground to stay where they were- a ring of stones taller than three men each formed around the Great Chasm, then a second, and a third ring... lastly, stones landed sideways and formed arches on top of the pillars of rock.

Light shone through each ring and each arch, snaking back and forth and gathering in intensity as each of the Winged Ones gathered there might- the earth was upturned, and the Great Chasm sealed.

The Winged Ones left within the hour, leaving the druids behind... to make sure that the abyss would never open again.

The druids formed an oath, a pact each swore by his life that they would protect the earth, each and every tree, its animals both fish and fowl from what sought to destroy it- and each year, the druids gathered around the Great Chasm to celebrate, pray that the hole would remain sealed, and saw to the stones that sealed it, carving many great legends into them.

However, as time came and went, the number of druids grew smaller. The elders died, their offspring either choosing different lives or not fostering children at all- while they never truly died out, the message of their holy oath soon became twisted.

The young ones forgot to learn how to read the ancient runes of their forefathers, and nature washed them away bit by bit- entire stone arches collapsed as heavy storms tore them down, and knowing little of their purpose, they were carried away to build houses out of them, rather than to repair the damaged seal.

Eventually, the oral traditions died out almost entirely- and of the holy oath that was taken to protect earth from the Dark Ones... they only remembered the first half.

5th of June 2020

Stonehenge, Southern England

Two white robed figures walked up the hill to the old stone circle, undisturbed by the heavy rainfall.

Their sandals squished mud under their feet, a bearded face, and a smooth female one kissed by rain with each step.

"Are you sure about this, Leonard?" The woman asked, somewhat muffled as she cringed from the cold rain. "We should do what the others did, come here at a different day."

"I'm here because i have to, Angelica. The calendar doesn't lie, today´s the day." Leonard grumbled, pushing his staff into the dirt as he walked by her side. "We swore an oath, and if that oath means we'll have a flu for a day or two, then so be it. I take this very seriously, as you know."

"Yes, and i'm sure if you get hit by a flying rock during this storm your oath will protect you from it." Angelica replied sarcastically, rolling her green eyes. "What can we even do without the others? Just you as the elder and me?"

"We can still pray to Gaia and appease her- maybe the storm will get milder when we do." He replied with a huff. "And if not... well, we can at least ask her to grant you a child, like every year."

"So long we can do it before i'll die of hypothermia." Angelia complained, nearly slipping on the wet grass. "Uah! Ugh... all this mud. With so many tourists, they could build a proper road leading up here, no?"

"It's a national treasure, Angelica. They can't, and they won't- there´s no money in it for them since nobody has to pay to enter the circle." The bearded man reached the top of the hill, frowning as lightning crackled through the sky. "Lets make this quick. Do our duties, and then head to shelter."

The two of them walked towards the center of the rings, Angelica soon opening up a small bag of herbs, flowers and ground wheat that was soaked through- it was spread around, as much as it could be with the storm trying to blow it away constantly, while Leonard drew a circle into the very center of the formation.

"Great Gaia, mother of everything! You who gave us life, lets us breathe, gives us food and quenches our thirst! Hear our voices and receive praise!" He began to chant, loudly, raising his staff. "You, who flows through all of us, guides all of us, and blesses all of us- receive our praise!"

Angelica joined his side soon, kneeling in front of the circle drawn in the mud.

"Great Gaia, mother of earth, of forest and ocean, we ask you to give us your harvest to eat and your tears to drink so that we may thrive and praise you for another year." She chanted, touching the circle with a finger and drawing after it. "Give us blessing, as we your children protect what you made and live to defend it. Give us warmth, shelter and light from your caring arms as you smile down on us from-"

"ARGGHHH!"

Thunder shot through the air, and hit the metal tip of Leonards staff. It shot through his body and dispersed like a spiders web across the ground, each stone briefly lighting up as it went- not that Angelica saw, as she rushed to his side instantly.

"LEONARD!" She cried out, the man twitching and shuddering as he fell to the floor, burns across all of his body. His staff was blown away by a sharp gust of wind- if she had not been so focused on him, she may have heard a creak.

"Leonard, talk to me!" She cried again, slapping his cheek, trying to get his attention, as the creaking, grinding sounds got louder, the wind unrelenting in its storm.

"God, oh god...We need to get you to a doctor, we need to-"

She gawked, only then seeing that one of the horizontal stones that formed an arch had come loose in the storm, crashing to the ground and... shattering. Like glass, the ground shattered underneath it, crumbling under what seemed to be the weight of the stone- but the ground reappeared the next second, as if it had merely swallowed the rock, rippling and flickering... the entire earth in the middle of the circle had become unstable, and Angelica soon felt the shaking, violently rocking ground try to swallow her too.

In a spark of self-preservation, she got up and started running, briefly looking back to Leonard, but just as she did, he too was swallowed up by the ground.

"God... Gaia...whoever, make this be a nightmare!" She panted, running through another archway to try and get away from this strange supernatural experience- another bolt of lightning struck the tip of a stone, lighting up each archway that remained intact, but there weren't many left.

A third lightning struck, and each time the ripples ceased- yet they started again soon after.

Angelica saw none of it beyond that, as she ran like the devil was after her down the hill and towards the nearest cellphone.

6th of June

Scotland, Aberdeen Airport

High heels clicked across the floor of the busy main terminal, followed by the rattle of two trolley wheels. Blue eyes that barely caught sleep the night before darted back and forth across the many signs and markers, trying to tell one gate from another to find the right one, suppressing a yawn every so often- it was early hours for Mato Kuroshira, after an assignment like the one yesterday she usually slept until six or seven in the evening... not so today. At five, she was brought up out of her bed with an order for emergency deployment, although the details were confusing and contradictory at first. Her companions were sent back to base to regroup, while she was ordered to the airport to board a plane...

"Ugh." She groaned, having missed her gate as the numbers kept going up, so she turned on her heel, walking back- and almost crashing into someone as a result. "Sorry, sorry."

The japanese-american took a gaze at her cellphone, checking the time before peeking up at the monitors hanging above the gates to see if she could make out something unusual, but it seemed like "Air Force H" was not on the list of scheduled flights. They'd probably take off whenever they liked, she figured and had to resist the temptation right there to take things slow and go buy another coffee- she still had a job to do.

"Okay... Gate 13...where is... where..." She mumbled, walking back the way she came, looking left and right- if anyone was looking for her, perhaps to guide her the way, it wouldn't be hard to spot her in the crowd. Mato´s idea of casual clothing was not blending in too well between the businessmen and tourists- along her high-heeled, knee-high boots and tight, but soft leather pants that were exposed on the sides, she wore a short white tank top that left the belly exposed and an even shorter black leather jacket- if one could even call it that, it was more a shrug than a jacket as the back was bare, but the arms were long. A fashion statement more than a means of staying warm.

It snugly fit the athletic girl, the leather hugging her shapely butt while the tank top gave everyone a mild view of her E-cup cleavage- her belly was toned and firm, though a thin layer of fat hid any abs that might show through. If she were to take her boots off though, it would be easy to see why she wore heels, as she stood at a mere 5 foot 11inch- hardly an imposing sight around chiseled warriors the likes of Hellsing.

"There it is! Fucking hell... could that sign be any smaller.?" It didn't occur to her that the sign may be small on purpose so that it wasn't immediately spotted- yet still, Mato exhaled a sigh of relief and went past the gate... to her surprise, the metal detector remained silent, apparently turned off.

"Good evening, Miss Kuroshira. Go right through." An airport officer of the taxation and immigration control kind gave her a brief salute and a smile, which she returned with a lazy, two fingered salute back, marching through to the gangway leading up to the plane.

At this point, she realized that her hair might still be a mess from bed, but a quick look in the mirror told her otherwise- maybe she did comb herself on sleep drunken automation, but her short, waist length black twin tails were just fine. A light smirk was given to the mirror and a wink, before she snapped it shut and tucked it back into her pant pocket as the entry door of the plane was right ahead.

Air Force H was a small private plane, a Learjet- favorite among high rollers, politicians and rich folk, it provided comfort and luxury combined with speed and understatement, allowing them to travel from place to place quickly and without too much attention... For Hellsing, though, it was used only when time was of the essence and the leader had to travel at short notice.

Which probably meant that Mato should´ve hurried up a bit more, but if she'd known that, she may have gone slowly on purpose.

As soon as she stepped into the plane, closing the door behind her, Mato did feel a certain warmth and comfort about the place... Dark wood furniture, black leather seats, a polished black table that almost resembled obsidian, a minibar and a sleeping lounge further back. A home away from home, comfort... something that was shaken significantly as it began taxing down the runway towards its takeoff position. "Woah!"

"I'm glad to see you could finally make it, Corporal Kuroshira."

At the back of the passenger cabin, sitting in a seat was Integra Fairbrook Wingates van Hellsing, the current leader of the Hellsing organization- a tanned beauty in her early 30s, titanium blonde hair flowing down her shoulders and an expensive green suit covered up what would be an exciting, flawless female body- were it not for the eye patch she wore underneath her glasses, covering up a scar of war. "Have a seat. We'll take off immediately."

"Yeah, so i noticed." Mato replied with a grumble, leaving the trolley where it was and sitting down lest she would be thrown across the cabin by the takeoff- by the time she approached, she noticed another woman sitting nearby, someone who brought a smile to her face. "Hey Seras."

The smile was returned only mildly by the blonde, pure blood British vampire who´s casual attire left much less to the imagination than Integras suit did, being form fitting and snug with a short skirt, the sort she usually had to wear as a uniform anyway. Seras was a dream of any man, or woman worth their stripes- sleek and athletic in the right spots, with curves where it counted and a chest to die for. Her hair was kept relatively short as always, a wild ponytail merely reaching the shoulders while the front bangs covered one of her crimson red eyes, currently colored blue due to contact lenses. Her arms were covered as well, thanks to a long sleeved, form fitting sweater and gloves that would hide her inhuman arm replacement to the unwitting masses... Dracula´s daughter seemed troubled, though, and that wasn't good news generally.

"I won't ask what kept you so long, and thank you for your attendance in any case." Integra remarked, taking a sip from a coffee cup- she too seemed to be lacking sleep. "We're in dire straits, so to speak."

"Yeah, and i regret taking that promotion now if i'm gonna be involved in high level shit." Mato remarked, leaning back in her seat and crossing her legs over. "...wait, why AM i involved? I'm only a Corporal, aren't i? Seras outranks me and... hell, there´s at least four other Captains."

"Rank has nothing to do with it. You're here because in times like this, i'd rather be surrounded by people i know i can trust." Lady Hellsing replied, exhaling a sigh. "Now, where do i begin... Hellsings mission, to let impure souls of the living dead be banished into eternal damnation, has always been our upmost credo. Alongside the unread, though, we´ve been hunting werewolves, artificially created monstrosities and even "Monsters of God". But the reason for our existence is much simpler- to protect mankind from higher predators, keep it from harm as much as we can. For over a century, that description only fit the vampires and their ghouls, but now..."

Integra bit her lip, and picked up what appeared to be a candy cigarette to chew on, before reaching for a remote. A TV screen opened up from one of the dark wood panels, and turned on to show surveillance footage from what seemed to be a high altitude drone.

"This is Stonehenge in Scotland- I'm sure the both of you have seen these strange weather reports by now. For almost two days now there has been a nonstop lightning storm above the country... or so the media claims, because the storm is centered right there."

"Above Stonehenge?" Seras gawked, folding her hands on the table just to try and keep them from fidgeting as the plane was taking off, slightly pressing her into the seat... whilst Mato was sliding off of her own seat and went further back through the inertia, almost nudging Integral by the end.

"Yes." She remarked, ignoring the Japanese girl violating her personal space. "That already is too much of a coincidence to ignore... but there´s more. Angelica Donnelly, 23 year old local and self-proclaimed... druid, had alerted the police yesterday morning as the storm was picking up."

The slide on the TV changed, going over to a mugshot and police file of Angelica. "The case was forwarded to us rather quickly, because according to her testimony 'the ground itself had swallowed her mentor', a man named Leonard Hartigan. He was the leader of the druid circle she belongs to- and insisted on heading to Stonehenge for a ritual despite the storm."

"So... they summoned something awful, and we have to kill it?" Mato concluded quickly, but received a one eyed glance.

"If only it was that simple. No, the ritual was nothing of the sort, the usual praying for good harvest nonsense apparently... He was thrusting a staff into the air and was struck by lightning as a result, as one may expect, but according to Miss Donnelly, the storm had knocked over one of the stone arches with strong winds and the ground had swallowed up the stone as soon as it hit soil."

"The ground...?" Seras gave off, disbelieving- until the next slide was shown, camera footage of Stonehenge from ground level, where the ripples and waves across the soil could be seen- just before another lightning bolt struck the arches.

"Yes, the ground... her testimony doesn't include more information, but we've sent a team ahead to investigate, and they returned this footage." Integra pointed over, gazing at the monitor with a deep frown. "Notice how this effect stops as soon as the thunder strikes... reportedly, three strikes in a row hit the rocks of Stonehenge, and ONLY them, each time stopping this... whatever it is, and forcing it to start over. The team said that the lightning almost hit them too as it shot from archway to archway, stopping only on the last one..." She took a deep sigh, and stopped the footage, looking at the two of them. "In our line of work, a gut feeling is often a good choice, as you know full well. Stonehenge is a circle of concentric rings. We've never been able to figure out its exact purpose, given that it was rebuilt or refurbished several times throughout its history, with stones being stolen or replaced, but it seems someone was very interested in keeping it at least somewhat intact until more recent times... clearly, it was an important place to the druids that went there. Now, you should be familiar with this symbol."

The next slide appeared, and Mato had to chuckle, while Seras cringed slightly. It depicted a pentagram with three rings and a line going down, magic spells written across the rings and runes at the tips of the star- it was well-known to them, as the vampire Alucard used to wear one on each of his gloves.

"That...what Master used to have. That what kept his powers in check." Seras brought out, against a lump in her throat.

"Yes, precisely. It's a binding spell to deny devilish powers." Integra nodded, folding her hands as she herself was starting to fidget. "Note the three concentric rings, and an exit at the bottom. The star in the middle is irrelevant- it's merely a depiction of the five magi that were necessary to bind and control Alucard´s immense powers, a depiction of their connection through magic. You could have a six or seven tipped star just as well and it would be equally effective. ...We've seen the lightning go from arch to arch at Stonehenge, like magic power going from one mage to the other."

"... I get it." Mato frowned. "You think Stonehenge is a giant magic seal that keeps something in check, yeah?"

"Yes. And the more it falls apart, the weaker the spell gets... that arch that collapsed may have weakened it enough that whatever it's keeping locked up tries to break the seal now." Integra concluded.

"And that lightning... is someone trying to prevent that.?" Seras gulped. "F-from above..."

"Something from far above tries to prevent something from far below reaching human soil." Lady Hellsing sighed, looking at her two friends. "Now you know why we're on an express flight to the South of England... and all available forces are heading the same way as we speak."

End of Prolog 


	2. Character biographies

**Authors note:** While the characters should stand on their own merits, there are a lot of OCs in this, so i felt a detailed discription of all of them was necessary in order to keep them in your memory as you read.

* * *

**Mato Kuroshira**

**Race**: Human

**Age**: 21

**Gender**: Female

**Height**: 155cm / 5 feet 1inch

**Hair color/Eye color/Skin color**: Black hair, blue eyes, pale caucasian

**Markings**: Black nails, Asian dragon tattoo covering her back, nipple piercings

American born to japanese parents, living in England since she was ten years old. At age 16, her family was attacked at night by a group of vampires- awoken by screaming downstairs, Mato fled through the window of her room into a dumpster behind the house. Due to warm climate, the smell hid her from the vampires. Hellsing arrived at the scene soon after disposing of the vampires and the rising ghouls, where Lance Corporal Victoria heard wimpering from the dumpster and discovered the sole survivor. Having had contact with a vampire, being homeless and without close relatives, she was taken in and homeschooled at Hellsing, recruited into lower ranks and gradually advancing her to a full fledged member. Has shown a surprising amount of skill when dealing with the undead, and dedicated training has made her able to deal with vampires head to head, a feat not archived by many. Close friend of Victoria and trusted associate of Lady Hellsing.

Preferred weaponry: Section-5 9x19mm SMG, heavily modified and customized, customized Smith and Wesson .500 Magnum revolver with 10,5inch barrel, combat knives, occasionally a Katana.

* * *

**Iskra Sevchenko**

**Race**: Cyborg human

**Age**: 27

**Gender**: Female

**Height**: 175cm / 5 feet 8inch

**Hair color/Eye color/Skin color**: Grey hair, blue eyes, pale caucasian

**Markings**: Visibly cybernetic arms, scars across her back, smaller scars on her belly, pale scar going down the left side of her face.

Born in Vladivostok, Russia, to a farmer couple. Enlisted into the military at age 18 to support her family, was recommended to Spesnaz after exceptional performance during mandatory duty. At an unknown point in time, joined a clandestine sub-organization of the Spesnaz, details largely unknown. Said organization deployed her to the Ukraine during the annexation of the Crimean island for sabotage and guerilla warfare under false flags, but shortly after arrival her vehicle hit a nationalist IED, killing three crewmembers inside and severely injuring her. According to eyewitnesses, Iskra proceeded to pull a companion out of the wrecked car with her teeth, presumably under influence of andrenaline, before collapsing on the ground. First aid was carried out with her already unconcious, later an eye and both arms had to be amputated- further injuries included four broken ribs and shattered shoulderblades, among other minor injuries. Intending to make further use of her talents, the organization managed to arrange for the installation of high end, next generation cybernetics, replacing both of her lost arms and the lost eye, several broken bones and part of her nervous system- the parts are fully integrated and cannot be removed without serious bodily harm.

After two years worth of surgical operations, Iskra was released into a new life only to find out that the organization was about to be disbanded due to a paradime shift in the Russian strategy for the Ukraine, denying that it ever existed as damage control due to civilian casulties- however Iskras personal files were forwarded to allied organizations, which eventually gained her a new employment in Hellsing as one of their most powerful, most capable human soldiers.

Preferred weaponry: Winchester M1895 lever action rifle (Russian contract model), cut down to the size of a large pistol, Vepr sporting rifle with bullpup stock layout, 20 round magazines of 7,62x54mm caliber and a select fire capability

* * *

**Rayna van Hellsing (Legal name)**

**Race**: Custom bred hybrid of vampire, werewolf and human

**Age**: 1

**Gender**: Hermaphrodite

**Height**: 2 meters / 6 feet 7inches

**Hair color/Eye color/Skin color:** Black hair with blue strands, green eyes, caucasian skin

**Markings**: None yet

An odd curiosity in the monster cabinet of Hellsing, Rayna is the result of an alchemy experiment of very overzealous vampire fanatics, combining the corpses of diseased humans, the blood of vampires and the blood of werewolves into one to archive a "master race" that would eventually replace both humans and vampires alike. Hellsing arrived on site just as the experiment was completed and Rayna rose from the altar she was created on, but fairly quickly found their arguments more convincing than those of her creators, turning against them. According to field reports, not a single shot had to be fired, as Rayna, bare handed and naked, could kill eight vampires armed with knives on her own. She was brought back with Hellsing after an exchange with the leadership, determining her an unfortunate victim of crime rather than a dangerous beast that had to be exterminated, later agreed upon by a psychologist requested by the government.

Adopted into the Hellsing household, the woman is of average intelligence despite her extremely young age and is already fully grown, although many of her mannerisims are found to be strange or even bewildering to others, given a lack of social exposure (or lack of desire to fit into society to begin with).

Preferred weaponry: Caerbannog .66 caliber semiautomatic handgun, entirely custom built for her specific needs and measurements, M107 CQ rifle outfitted with mission dependant accessories

* * *

**Abbygail Wakethorne**

**Race**: Modified Ghoul

**Age**: 19 (Ceased Aging)

**Gender**: Female

**Height**: 159cm / 5 feet 2inches

**Hair color/Eye color/ Skin color**: Red hair, purple eyes, grey skin

**Markings**: Bite marks on her neck, various operation scars , augmentation on the base of the spine

When talking about strange cases, one cannot get around Abbygail. Little is known about her past, although she´s presumably a british woman from Leeds hinted at by her accent and by the area that she was found in. She was turned into a ghoul by a vampire later identified as a Millennium sleeper agent, evident by the lack damage to her body that is normally found on a ghoul, apart from a bite scar. Her body was intact, and wishing to further study how the artifical vampires can turn humans into ghouls so consistantly and how their ghouls could continue to exist after the death of their master, she was captured "alive" by a specialist recovery team. For the next five years she was experimented on, operated, induced to various treatments and exposed to conditions until first signs of conciousness started to appear- quickly an appeal was started to continue the experiment and see where this development would lead, eventually approved with caution. Another year, and fifty operations passed, before Abbygail could speak her first words, formulate sentences and pass a Touring test. Twenty surgeries, mostly cosmetic, followed suit, and she was released into limited Hellsing service, under close observation.

She has lost all of her memory due to the long term effects of ghoulification, which somewhat disturbs her, but cognitive functions appear to be in working order and she has passed several physical exams since. Alongside the vampiric immortality, however, she has an increased appetite for proteins, preferring steaks and other meaty meals above all else- presumably an after effect of her condition. Further effects are still being recorded, investigation continues.

Preferred weaponry: Matched set of 1911 pistols with double stack magazine wells, MP5A3 submachine gun with red dot sight and weapon light

* * *

**Alexander Winters**

**Race**: Human

**Age**: 28

**Gender**: Male

**Height**: 180cm / 5 feet 11inch

**Hair color/Eye color/Skin color: **Brunette hair, green eyes, light tan caucasian

**Markings: **Mild scarring on the neck, tribal tattoo down the right arm

Alexander Winters is the exception among human soldiers, as he not only had up close experiences with a vampire, but actually lived with one for a fair few years. He left his position in the Royal Marines as his girlfriend was bitten by a vampire and turned into one, but refused to give her up as being a monster that eats people. Over a long period of time they went through trial and error on a number of therapy attempts, related to abstination from blood, forced feeding, medication, meditation, and finally pleasure and pain practices which seemed to have some effect, as blood drinking induces a pleasure effect on the mind and pain temporarily overrides the hunger.

It went well for about two years, before she began leaving at night, having an affair with another man. That man was a vampire himself, undid all of their hard work by getting her addicted to the taste of blood- eventually, Alex found out. With his Marine training he managed to overwhelm the male vampire and subdue him with a wooden stake, while he tried to calm his former girlfriend down- she eventually found the same fate as he staked her to a wall, just before Hellsing arrived at the scene. She had tried to bite him at that point, leaving him with a bleeding wound, but the medical staff confirmed that the fangs only ripped the skin. The vampire was disposed of, but Alex was quickly hired due to his in depth and intimate knowledge of the vampiric physiology and behavior.

Preferred weaponry: Customized 1911 style pistol in 9mm, nicknamed "Jessica" after his girlfriend with a picture of her on the grips, G36KV assault rifle with german dual vision sights

* * *

**Frieda Simone Desdemona von Haydenreich**

**Race: **Human with mythical augmentation

**Age: **177

**Gender:** Female

**Height: **165cm

**Hair color/Eye color/Skin color: **Grey hair, green eye, caucasian skin

**Markings:** Left eye missing for unknown causes, covered with an eyepatch

Frieda is a woman of mystery and many questions- too many, that one might bother asking them, although she would hardly deny any answers. Aged well beyond her apperance, she looks rather young and youthful, in the best of her years as an adult. A handsome noble to boot, she claims she is merely aristocratic by name and that her wealth comes entirely from her work- hunting everything that Hellsing doesnt bother to hunt. To do this a wide array of forbidden arts, magic, potions, poisons and entchantments, as well as the common well placed bullet are at her disposal, often a combination of two or more at the same time. Quickly one will find out that she has never found much interest in men, but rarely ties herself down either, always willing to go on another...adventure with someone. She posesses impressive knowledge and a library to back it up, yet where she got them, what makes her so immortal and why her family chose to hunt the supernatural are secrets she keeps well to herself.


	3. 01:Ancient Evil

Chapter 1:

Ancient Evil

6th of June

Southhampton Airport, Great Britian

A mild feeling of jet lag, or perhaps merely vertigo spread through Mato as her feet finally touched solid ground again, leaving the plane behind and instead walking with the two women down the private gangway to their gate- something about being airborne at high altitude always gave her some mild sickness, and in a small jet like the Air Force H there wasn't really a seat without windows. Holding in that feeling though, she focused on pulling her trolley without it hitting her heels, which was annoying her on the way before, and remained almost uncharacteristically quiet until Integra raised her voice.

"I´ll be heading off here." She began, gazing over to her two companions. "My driver is taking me to a forward base in Salisbury- you two should head to Stonehenge´s visitor center, we've chosen it as our makeshift command post. You'll find the rest of your team there, the main forces are gathering on site."

"Yeah, but... you know, we should probably stop by a phone booth or something to change from Clark Kent into Superman, yeah?" Mato snarked, pointing down on her very casual self. "Not much of an official soldier here."

"I'd prefer something without windows, that doesn't smell of alcohol and vomit." Seras added with a cringe. She was pulling her own trolley, a bright pink example with a few buttons and accessories which quite clearly told a story of her mental age. Not very befitting of an extremely powerful vampire. "I'm sure we'll find a restroom or the sort on the way, Mato."

"You'll be fine." Integra added with a nod, a silent vote of confidence. "I wish i could be there with you, but several members of the Round Table, of the Royal Army and Salisbury´s state governor are expecting me... and i'll have a better means of coordinating the operation with their help."

"No excuses needed, Sir." Seras smiled, giving her a brief salute. "We'll do our best, you'll do yours, and we'll be home for tea time."

"Make it so." Integra smiled, repressing a chuckle, then nodding to both of them. "Godspeed to you both." With that said, she went off into a different direction, leaving the two girls to their own devices.

"So..." Mato began, the two of them walking out of the airport, heading towards the front entrance. "Just... just to recap, we're told to prepare for... what exactly?" The Japanese girl peeked over to her friend with a frown on her face.

"I don't bloody know! She didn't say!" Seras threw her arms up, frowning deeper. "How are we supposed to prepare for a mission i know nothing about?!"

A pause occurred, the two of them looking at one another, sighing in unison- both at the same time, as if they felt exactly the same. Then, though, Mato lifted her head and brought a faint smile. "I guess we just do what we always do. Prepare for the worst and improvise."

"... I guess so." Seras returned a light smile, pressing her lips together and marching on, with her companion in tow. "We should see who we have to work with, first. Sir Hellsing mentioned a team, and that there´s a full-scale deployment in progress."

"Yeah, gotcha. Can't wargame without a hex-sheet, after all." Mato snarked, resting her eyes on Seras´s butt as she walked behind her- her casual attire was too tight-fitting not to risk a peek. She would go for a grope, but Seras´s reflexes might break her hand before she'd reach it. "So you're closer to the Big Boss, and you've been around for longer, and you outrank me and all that... any idea what sort of numbers we're talking about when you say full-scale?"

"Uhh." The blonde vampire gave off, cluelessly gazing ahead as she was oblivious to the lewd looks aimed at her behind. "Probably hundreds? Probably... i mean, i'm only a Captain, you know? I have command of a few squads- most of the soldiers don't know about me, or they only ever saw me from a distance."

"Need to know basis on the girl with the fangs, eh? No wonder you're single." Mato chuckled. "I guess we'll see... I'm not sure why i'm pissing myself over this, its just this... clammy feeling in my throat."

"I know what you mean." Seras nodded, keeping the front door open for Mato to head on through, trolley in tow. "If Master was here, he'd probably already know what we're up against, how to defeat it and if its something dangerous or not... but, well..."

"Hey." A pale human hand came resting on her shoulder, as the gothic girl came up to her side to give her a reassuring smile. "You're the big bad vampire now, Seras. You're not afraid of anything anymore, that's what you said!"

"I'm not!" She puffed her cheeks in return, gazing aside. "... Its just a healthy dose of caution."

"Sure." A light smirk crossed Matos lips as this forty year old woman, who ceased to age at nineteen acted like she was twelve. Seras´s mind was a mess and a half, and she knew how much shit she had to go through. Like Mato herself, Seras lost her parents too, but at a much younger age- without someone to catch her falling. Worse yet, the moment she began crawling out of that deep hole in young adulthood, her new life was taken away for a second time by vampires, then a third time she lost everything, including her beloved, to the Nazis. Her body was flawless, but her psyche was full of scars. "So are we taking a taxi?"

A taxi was the first solution, but it only got them so far. Wiltshire was completely off limits, locked down with all roads blocked- the public were told a german bomb was being defused, with media coverage focussing on a police training run for one in the town center. The perfect cover... should the seal actually break and cause a mess.

As such, the two had to take a hike for a bit to get behind the police barricade. Mato was starting to complain about her luggage fairly soon, but the police were helpful as ever and brought them closer to their destination... until a military checkpoint around the entire Stonehenge site stopped them as well.

"Captain Victoria. Good to see you've made it." A private of Hellsing, assigned to check the ID of anyone coming in and out saluted her, though he didn't seem to greet Mato in the same manner, just a brief check and a nod.

"Thanks, Hanson. We're a bit behind on information though, what's the situation?" Seras returned quickly, and blinked as the man´s face fell into horror.

"Its... its... nothing i've ever seen before, Captain! I volunteered to be down here, its spooky enough of a place without this constant thunderstorm and the... the wobbling."

"So that means the seal is still intact." Mato figured, peeking over to the blonde´s face. "Now we just have to find the visitors center... and probably somewhere to suit up."

"The... the weapons and equipment have all been loaded off there, i'm sure everything you need is there... just..." Hanson panicked further, only to receive a hard nudge from the japanese girl.

"Pull yourself together man. We're Hellsing. Spooky stuff is everyday shit. You just stay here and check everyone who´s trying to get in, alright?"

"Y-yes... yes, you're right." The man gulped, trying to stiffen up into a salute. "Good luck to both of you."

A pat on the shoulder was the return of Mato before she just walked past him, Seras following. He didn't exactly lie though- the dark skies and lightning storm, constant rain that was soaking them already and turning the ground off of the main roads into a mess... all that combined with the mysterious stone arches gave the whole place a creepy feel.

Soon enough, the main road ended and a gravel path led to the visitor center- next to the path, the mud was pressed down in the shape of tank treads. In those hundred meters of walking, they passed at least eight armed men and two APCs driving by... Mato was starting to get some concerns herself, just seeing all of this.

"Shit... this IS serious, huh? It's a shame about the weather, or we could at least have some helicopters in the air." She muttered, walking up the steps to the entrance.

"I'm not sure they would help us any." Seras sighed with a shake of her head. "The ones we have aren't armed, they're just for transport and reconnaissance. Besides, are we allowed to damage the Stonehenge?"

"Heh, we might find out." The black haired girl snickered, opening up the door for the two of them and heading in- and in a way, she felt like she was back home.

Ammunition crates were piled up on one corner of the lobby, being unloaded and fed into weapons while the other corner seemed to be preparing mines, grenades and light artillery shells across a couple of work stations. Further, back, troops were checking their weapons and forming ranks, before heading out the back of the center towards the monument... it was there when their team spotted them.

"Hey, Mato!" This came from a somewhat sickly looking ginger woman, whom was heading over to her quickly. Already dressed in a standard Hellsing uniform, she almost looked normal- if it wasn't for her purple eyes and light grey skin. She was sleek and athletic, probably due to hard training moreso than her lifestyle and even without heels, she was a good half-inch taller than Mato as she got close.

"Abby, my main girl." The japanese replied, grinning and bumping fists with her. "Is it so bad that they're sending ghouls to the front now?"

"Hey, i can take a bullet or two and hardly even notice. Not so much with you." Abigail poked her in the exposed part of her belly, only to run her hand over it. Looking back at it, her fingers were dripping wet. "Its still raining out there, huh?"

"It's been raining for days. What, you think it stops because the cavalry arrives?" A light snort from Mato came, then she took a look around to see if she could spot the rest. "So who else but you?"

"Rayna is unloading our equipment from the truck just now, but Iskra should be-" The ghoul was cut off, as the woman in question stopped next to them. Iskra Sevchenko, Spesnaz´s finest- the tall russian woman had her silvery hair tied into a braid to get it out of the way, for it would otherwise hang to her waist, but one could tell it was just as wet as the shoulders of her uniform. Under the shoulder was the holster of an almost monstrous sidearm, one that appeared to be a lever action rifle cut down to length, though the other side held pouches for stripper clips. A sizable chest was showing through the perfectly snug fit of her clothing, but her piercing glance told anyone that it was better not to stare. She gave a salute to Seras, who smiled and nodded back.

"Captain Victoria, we're ready for your orders." Iskra said stiffly, "Private Rayna should join us any moment with the heavy weapons- Captain Winters and Lieutenant McNaire already took positions north and west of the visitor center, with three sections each."

Mato grinned, looking over to Seras as she heard this. "What, the others get to command a dozen soldiers or more and you're stuck with four?"

"Four of the best Hellsing has to offer." Seras replied with a gaze. "It's probably better this way... i don't have a lot of... practical experience commanding troops. Not beyond small unit tactics, anyway."

"Well, we are a small unit, so that´ll work." Abby joined in with a shrug. "What are we doing, anyway?"

Mato tugged on her tank top, dripping wet as it was, as a response. "I know what i'll do. I need a change of clothes and a damn hair dryer... though, looking at I.S., looks like the last one is out of order." She snickered as Iskras wet braid flopped off of her shoulder and received a gaze.

"She's right, though, we need to change into our uniform." Seras replied before Iskra would give her more than a look. "Is there something like a dressing room here, or..."

"This is not what i thought of when asking for a dressing room." Seras huffed, nervously looking left and right in the storage room she was brought to- it was just about enough to store enough paperwork and materials for the entire complex, five by five feet in size... and yet she didn't feel safe, almost as if she wasn't alone...

"It ain't Fort Knox, but i blocked the door." Mato snickered, just then stripping out of her tank top- Seras turned around towards the noise, and gulped, blushed and turned back around.

"MATO! Can't you wait?! I...I'd be back out in a minute!" She complained, turning beet red quite quickly- Mato had only worn a flimsy bra underneath, and had pulled it off alongside the shirt. "I didn't ask to see your breasts either! A... are... are those... piercings?"

"Hey, if anyone´s allowed to have a peek, you'd be first on the list." The japanese chuckled and reached over to Seras, wrapping her arms around the girls neck and hugging her from the back, breasts pressing tightly against her damp shirt. "Having a bit of fun before work isn't forbidden, is-"

Her voice died in her throat and was replaced by a squeal as the entire building shook in a tremble, stacks of paper falling off the shelves- thunder loud enough to make one's ears ring followed suit, making Seras stop complaining and turn around, holding onto Mato tightly and nervously looking at the rest of the vibrating stockpile.

"Wh-what the hell is..." Mato brought out, but as the earthquake started to cease a bit, the two looked in each others eyes and decided in silent unison that it was time to stop messing around. Quickly, both of them dressed in their respective outfits- Seras in her own, crimson red version of the Hellsing uniform which had a distinct tear on the sleeve. At least she had decided to replace the socks with intact ones, but the shirt had meaning to her and was kept damaged as it was. Below the sleeve, the left arm she kept hidden until now was now plainly visible- a semi-solid mass of dark plasma, constantly shifting and moving around a glowing yellow center. This grotesque manifestation of her vampiric powers replaced an arm she lost to the Nazis 20 years ago- she long since learned how to reform and regenerate her limbs at will, but not only did this replacement arm have many features that made it worthwhile, but it reminded her, just like the uniform, who and what she was.

Mato went more custom than the others, given her less than conventional fighting style she was allowed to make some changes. The boots were not too different from the ones she had already been wearing, with just a bit thicker heels and profiled soles for grip- socks and skirt were off the shelf Hellsing uniform items, but the top was a custom-made rig featuring a corset like bulletproof vest, magazine pouches on her waist and pouches for spare ammunition in boxes. The arms were left bare except for finger less gloves, and above all of it was a harness rig with two holsters and a back sling for a katana scabbard, which was fixed on moments later, coupled with a pair of combat knives further below.

"They'd better have brought my guns." Mato muttered, adjusting a couple of straps here and there, before peeking over her shoulder. "Ready?"

Seras nodded. "They had to find mine too, yours will be there. Go for it."

"What took you so long? One of the stone pillars fell over and as soon as it did, that earthquake happened!" Abby squealed, visibly getting more concerned by the minute and nervously looking out whenever a bolt of thunder came down. She was holding an MP5A3 in her hands by now, straight out of Hellsings standard issue stockpile and featuring a red dot scope, but she had strapped two pistol holsters onto her thighs rather than just one.

Seras put her left hand on her shoulder, which barely did anything to calm her down but only got her a bit more concerned."We're done now. Where's Rayna and our equipment?" She asked, eager to move out and make sure that they would be ready for whatever was going to happen next.

"Keep your panties on, Victoria." Heavy steps came down the hallway leading to the front entrance, and a mountain of a woman came towards them. Granted, the large armament crate on her shoulder and the big rifle she carried in the other hand made her seem larger than she was, but even then, Rayna stood at two meters of height, with shoulders nearly twice Seras´s width. Her build would be able to make heavyweight wrestlers reconsider tackling her, but even so, she had a gentle, confident expression on her face. Green eyes looking down on the two women, she set down the crate next to them and shook her arm briefly, partially wringing out her Hellsing uniform... thanks to the rain, one could see that despite her muscled build, she still had feminine curves to herself and her long black hair with blue strands told that she wasn't above trying to look pretty either. "Evening, Cap. And is that my favorite lewd Japanese girl behind you?"

Mato came up from behind Seras, grinning with a wry look. "Your favorite? You don't have others beside me, do you?" She bumped her fist against Raynas larger one, then went for a one armed hug.

"Only animated ones." Rayna snickered, and briefly nodded to Iskra as she came back from talking to one of the other leaders.

"Captain, the defense perimeter is nearly completed. Captain Winters chose to arrange our troops in a ring formation, using a natural trench around the monument, and set up the heavy weapons near the entrance." Iskra reported to Seras, crossing her arms over.

"How much do we have to work with, Iskra?" The vampire asked in response as Mato and Abby got working on opening the weapons crate.

"Twelve sections, led by Captain Winters and Lieutenants McNaire and Saunders. They each command two sections directly, with the others being in command of Sergents Williams, Devons and Fairbanks. Devons set up heavy machine guns on the path to the altar, Fairbanks and McNaire set up the 40mm grenade launchers left and right of him- they have a near complete field of fire across the entire area, though the idea is to make the pathway out of the Stonehenge a heavily defended kill zone. Its unlikely that the enemy will try to escape past the trench and into the open field, and if they do we'll have an easy time with them because the grassy hill is a mushy, slippery natural obstacle."

"Good... sounds good at least, on paper..." Seras exhaled. "Did he say anything about our involvement in it?"

"They're the support for our assault." Iskra put it bluntly. "We're supposed to kill whatever comes out to kill them, and if its something too big to handle or if the numbers get too large they'll use the heavy weapons to help us out. Otherwise, the soldiers in the trenches will try to make sure the enemy is funneled down the intended path and take potshots if they get the chance."

A loud crack was heard, as the lock of the weapons crate broke and a brief "oops" came from Rayna who´d tried to help the two girls out. Seras sighed. "Well, he's got more experience than i do with this, so i'll trust his judgment. If this doesn't work, our second defense perimeter is one i'll build. Mato? Is my cannon in there?"

"You betcha." With Abbys help, she took out a large and cumbersome rifle and hefted it upright- Hydra 20mm assault cannon, it read on the side- half of the rest of the crate were just ammunition for it, four magazines worth. Mato was quick to retrieve her revolver and slid it into the holster on her thigh, but took a special sort of pleasure to lift her Section 5 SMG out of the crate. It was a Section 5 at some point, at least- nearly all of its parts had been replaced or rebuilt during its lifespan, and the large attachment at the front of the gun, sleeving a barrel twice as long as normal and a recoil reducing mechanism, also spoke volumes of how much the gun still resembled its criminal past. Six magazines slid into her pouches, one into the gun, and likewise six speed loaders for her revolver were put in small pouches on her belt.

Rayna already got what she needed in her hand, an M107 .50 caliber rifle in its short, Close Quarters configuration- normally it should be used like a sniper rifle, but thanks to her strength and statue she chose just to mount a regular red dot optic on it, alongside a larger 15 round magazines to use it like a regular battle rifle. On her hip was a handgun befitting of her as well, a .66 caliber semi auto pistol built for her unique needs and abilities, with a few spare magazines next to it.

Iskra was fast to take out and load up her bull pup configured Vepr rifle as well, slapping a 20 round magazine in it and chambering with the same fluid motion, before making sure the sights were aligned- she had no need for a red dot, as her replacement eye already made up for most of her human shortcomings.

"Alex? Seras here, what's the situation?" Holding her cannon in one hand, the other hand had gone to Seras´s radio- the vampire was growing more and more concerned. "We've just loaded up and are about to move out."

"Glad you could make it. Grim, is the short answer." Captain Alex Winters replied, frowning as he was staring downrange towards the altar in the middle of Stonehenge. His rifle was rested on a few sandbags they had managed to throw up in a hurry, one of the four big belt-fed grenade launchers stood next to him and was currently being calibrated. "That earthquake began right after the stone fell over and only stopped once another lightning hit- and the ripples are getting bigger, too. Whatever´s about to happen is pretty damn big... you should keep your distance from the altar if you know what's good for you."

"Not what i wanted to hear." Seras frowned further, giving her section a hand gesture to move towards the back of the building. "And i dont suppose you know what's going to happen either?"

"I wish i did. Hell itself, from the looks of it, but dont ask me what that looks like." Alex gave back, and shuddered lightly as the rain dripping off of his helmet ran down his neck. "Ugh. In any sense, we'll back you up, no matter what happens. As always."

"Appreciated. I'll make sure to keep you alive too, Alex- the world needs more men like you."

Cutting the call, Seras picked her cannon up off the ground and pulled its massive bolt back to make it ready, whilst jogging after the rest of the force. "Alright, keep your distance from the stone arches, we don't want to end up like that druid. And... be ready for anything."

"That's a fucking tall order if i ever heard one." Mato chuckled, but didn't complain otherwise. Iskra huffed, nudging her side with a jab of her elbow.

"Its an extraordinary situation, Kuroshira. I wouldn't know what to do in her shoes." The russian replied, briefly gazing back to Seras to nod. "Don't worry about it, Captain."

"Yeah, don´t worry about the shortstack. Its everything else you gotta worry about." Rayna threw in with a snort, leading the team, but like Iskra she soon took up a position near the entrance of the monument, where two heavy machine guns were positioned as well. "We'll keep you cover from here while you guys get closer.

"Alright. Abby, stick close to me, the two of us have the best chances to survive whatever happens first." Seras replied, and looked over to Mato, opening her mouth to speak, but was silenced by the hand of the japanese girl.

"Stuff it, Victoria. I'm not leaving your side in a moment like this. I might only be human, but i can look after myself. ...i owe you my life and everything i have. It's about time i act upon that."

"..." Seras was quiet afterwards, worried, but after such words she could hardly tell her to piss off back to the rest of the soldiers. "At least stay behind me."

"I will." Mato smiled. "Walking in your footsteps, as always."

The three of them continued to walk forward towards the altar, reaching the first set of stone pillars, when the muddy, soft soil sunk a bit deeper, then rose, then deepened again... another ripple, several inches in magnitude and enough to make the girls trip and halt in their movement, but more importantly the final nail in the coffin of the Stonehenge seal.

Two more pillars fell over under the rippling motions, sinking into the ground without a sound and disappearing underneath them...

Visibly, the altar stone cracked, then sprang apart violently firing pebbles in all directions. Cracks formed across the ground, extending from the former altar all the way out to the trench as an earthquake twice as vicious as the previous one shook the place- one after another, lighting came down from the sky but to no effect this time- the quake didn't stop, it only got worse.

"Shit. shit shit! IS IT TOO LATE TO QUIT?!" Abby gave off, wincing and clutching her SMG firmly, while Mato merely grimaced, closed her eyes and tried her best to stand upright.

The ground finally collapsed, tearing a seemingly bottomless abyss where the altar used to stand and consuming everything, including the rest of the stone pillars- Seras had to back away in order to not get swallowed as well.

The great chasm had opened up again, and an incredible heatwave shot up from its core.

"Wha... GET BACK!" Seras shouted to the other two girls, then jumped to dive into a bellyflop herself. Like a jet of hot molten lava, a pillar of red plasma shot up into the sky, radiating heat and visible light- a massive thunderbolt crashed down and seemingly wanted to subdue the pillar, but it merely got swallowed up by its mass as it shot further into the sky. Fireballs began to rain down from it, scorched chunks of what used to be the ground they stood on, now turned to lava and molten rock.

"TAKE COVER!" Shouts across the battlefield were sounded as the balls of fire slammed down, some hitting the visitor center, others merely raining down into the terrain and catching a few trees on fire- one large chunk fell down onto one of the grenade launchers, causing the section that crewed it to break into a panicked escape but the resulting explosion of its ammunition claimed two of them regardless.

Amidst all this chaos, Seras got up from the ground again to turn and see what was going on...just in time to see a black staircase form as the red plasma began to disperse. A large, spiral staircase leading down beyond what eyes could see had formed in the chasm, though it was still hard to even look at it thanks to the intense heat that radiated from it.

Just barely, she could make out dozens, hundreds of humanoids marching up from the stairs...

Breathless, she reached for her radio. "Incoming...INCOMING!" 

End of Chapter 1


	4. 02: Army of the Damned

Chapter two

Army of the Damned

A light film of cigarette smoke was in the air, curling and twisting above the men and women of the new Round Table- the most influential, most powerful people of their time. Members of state, ministers of defense, of information and even private moguls which finance them.

Each one sworn to absolute secrecy to the grave, in a pact that resembled the Illuminati to the letter, but with a more noble cause.

Amongst them, a one eyed woman, smoking a cigar for the first time in five years, pressing her teeth down onto it. "What's the situation, Winters?"

"Victoria just arrived, from what i've heard. We're finishing up the defensive perimeter, but we should be ready when... whatever it is, happens." Alex replied on the radio, the receiver of which sitting on the table.

"About that. What's happening, exactly?" Integral inquired, pressing further as she still had no idea how to judge the situation.

"Same as before, really. Constant rain, lightning, occasional wobbles in the earth followed by lightning that makes it stop... Ughh!"

A loud rumbling noise came through on the radio, and several people in the room began to widen their eyes, looking about with concern.

"What's happened?!"

"An earthquake, Ma´m." Winters replied, after a loud thunderstruck came through. "It loosened up the soil... and seemed to have torn down one of the stone pillars. That cant is good."

"Alright. Keep me posted." With that, she muted the radio again and turned to her accomplices. "Sir Irons is absent."

"He's in the hospital, same as Penwood." Sir Underhill replied, a late middle-aged man with brown hair and a full beard. "Irons heart is getting weaker, but he refuses a transplant."

"Stubborn as always." Integra huffed, shaking her head slightly. "I'd hate to involve him in this with that sort of condition, so its better if nobody tells him what's going on. ... What about Penwood?"

"He's been sent to the hospital this morning, shortly after note of this arrived... Ligma, they say." Lady von Steadfast replied.

"What in gods name is Ligma?"

"Probably an excuse not to be here."

"Hmph." Integra bit down on her cigar, still pacing around the room rather than sitting down. "What about support from the Army? Any news on that?"

"The RAF rejected our appeal, saying that the weather conditions make their intervention impossible." An older gentleman, Sir Toddenberry, brought up. "Bollocks. They flew just fine when it came to defending against Messerschmidts. As for the ground forces, a squadron of tanks and a platoon of men is on their way, but they'll likely not reach the area before tomorrow."

Another huff from Integra. "And tomorrow things may have gone south already... still, at least they're willing to help, even if its not much. Did the Navy say anything?"

"Two guided missile destroyers and a frigate are in the area, they're en route, but its questionable if they're going to be in missile range before this thing happens. Their helicopters are going to have the same problem as the air force."

"In short, we have nothing that's useful to us -right now-?" Integra pressed, looking around the room with a glare as her hands came down on the table. "Anything? This crisis has been going on for over 24 hours!"

"What does Hellsing have to offer?" von Steadfast brought up with a scoff. "Protection from the supernatural falls under your jurisdiction, not that of the Army or the Airforce."

A glance was returned, and Integra backed off of the table briefly.

"Stonehenge is a prehistoric site, built before the bronze age. Paper wasn't invented yet, and the stones are so heavily worn that if they inscribed anything onto them, its washed away by this point- but it was likely an oral tradition, based on what we know." She began to explain, pacing around the room again in a nervous manner. "We could only dig up scraps here and there going through the archive. Pagan folklore, mostly. Worshiping spirits and Gaia, the mother of the earth- nothing about sealing something into earth itself, or the heavens fighting against it. There were a few legends that read of dark walkers and evil lords of battle of some sort which came from a great chasm, but nothing concrete. A dark one could be anything, a demon, a paranormal entity or just a dark skinned man." Integra shook her head. "We're steering blind. Stonehenge´s history is lost and forgotten- all we know is based on observation. It's a giant binding seal, restraining powers from passing through it, and its pointed at the earth. Without reasonable explanation, a thunderstorm has maintained itself for more than a day, concentrated over that specific area, and is unloading lightning into a non-conductive material, which conducts across the ground, interacting with the other stone arches. Its two powers fighting over the seal, one trying to break it, the other trying to reinforce it... and based on what Winters is saying-"

Integra stopped, as the sky was lit up bright red. Teacups and glasses begun to shake and rumble, then they fell as an earthquake powerful enough to be felt miles away shook them, a pillar of red light visible through the window.

Minutes after

Stonehenge crater.

Grenades impacted the ground one after another, though the artillerymen quickly realized that they wouldn't be able to destroy the stairway itself. Rather, the grenades dropped short, aiming to destroy whatever came out of it, assisted by the fire of the heavy machine guns.

An incredible noise filled the air, the smell of soot and sulfur omnipresent from the weapons discharged all over- like a scale model of a World War One battlefield, concentrated into a circle of about a kilometer in radius.

And yet, despite all this firepower, eventually some of them got through when a grenade turned out to be a dud, or when the flank was left unguarded by a launcher reloading. Six foot tall humanoids walked out, one by one, undeterred by the amount of weapons pointed at them. Their bodies were muscular, covered in reptilian skin and scale, with black metal armor covering a lot of it, especially torso, forearms and legs. Their helmets shielded the face, leaving only a slit to see out of- steam rose out from those slits, as if the inside of the armor was so hot that the interior was cooking.

But while these primitive looking suits of armor seemed obsolete, an entire magazine of Abby´s MP5 provided nothing more than sparks and ricochets. "Damn things are invincible!" She cried out, reaching for a new magazine whilst backing away, and ducking under a spear that was thrown her way.

Spears turned out to be their first line of offense, it seemed. Each of them carried one, chucking it at the nearest person in sight before changing to a single edged longsword and tower shield- the edge of the shield told of its thickness. Its dark metal measured half an inch, a with its angled inner ridges that material may well be thicker. As strong as the outer hull of Hellsings armored personnel carriers, but provided for each man.

"Not invincible- you just gotta hit the right spots!" Mato shouted back. She dodged a spear thrown at her by flipping to the side, landing in a crouch and a burst of her SMG hitting the unarmored upper arm of a soldier and taking it off, its shield falling to the ground uselessly. "Sadly with our popguns, we're kinda screwed, Abby! Make the best of it!"

Rayna was decidedly not screwed, although the armor proved to be a challenge for her rifle it was doing significant enough damage- one of the soldiers was hit square in the middle of his chest plate, while it protected him from the bullet penetrating, the force of it knocked him over like a rag doll and bent inwards. Another was not so lucky, as the armor of the helmet was slightly thinner and allowed her rifles bullet entry, but not exit- his head exploded with the helmet containing the gore, gushing out the front slits.

"Stay out of range of their spears!" Seras commanded to the rest of the men, whilst she herself made use of her left arm to penetrate and pierce the weak spots in the armored armada. Yet still, she pressed her lips together and frowned at the situation they were facing. On one hand, the grenade launchers only had so much ammo, and they were going through a lot of it very quickly, on the other even now the enemy was able to get through their barrage little by little, so when the grenades would run dry, the tides might turn very quickly. A moment of thinking was all it took for her to be distracted enough- a spear chucked at her chest buried itself deep and was followed by a second, then third one as she had made herself a priority target, though the vampire decided to turn into a swarm of bats, reforming her body at a position closer to the defensive line. The spears fell uselessly to the ground as the flesh they stuck to disappeared, but the cannon remained in her possession. Hydra´s armor piercing incinerary shells were quite effective, holing through even the shields the enemy soldiers put before them but the large cannon, like the grenade artillery, had very limited ammunition. By the time her first magazine ran dry, she got back on the radio.

"Alex!" She shouted, ramming her left arm into the ground to let spikes emerge a few meters ahead of her, spearing two from below as their armored skirts left them vulnerable to attacks from below. "We need a plan, fast! Our big guns will run out at this rate!"

"I know!" Alex shot back, currently ducking behind the birm of the trench to look at a map, going over possible areas for retreat, to spread their defenses a bit and make it harder for the enemy to focus their attention on them directly. "I'm counting on you to hold them off, your powers dont rely on ammunition!"

"Abby! Grab one of those swords, that might be worth more than your gun at this rate!" Seeing her struggle with making precise, armor-defeating hits, Mato suggested a change of tactics. "Remember what we trained?"

"We were both naked when you told me to spar you with a sword, how could i forget that?!" Abby replied, flushing slightly as she announced this to everyone around, but quickly began looking around- one of the soldiers dropped near her, so his sword was soon in her hand. Heavy and chunky as it would be to a human, her ghoulish physique gave her just a bit of an edge over the average Joe, so the weapon made of dark metal was quickly lifted up. Its single edge made it at least similar in that regard to a Katana, so she hoped sparring Mato with one would help her here- she gave it a few test swings, but then squeaked and backed away as a similar sword already swung towards her head, raising hers to parry. Like she had learned, the parry was executed with a swing to the side, allowing her to spin the blade over to a diagonal cut towards a bit of skin showing between helmet and curiass. Finally, a kick to the chest knocked the wounded soldier over, but by that point she faced down two more coming towards her with a quick march.

Further, back, a spear thrown at an unlucky soldier was barely stopped in front of him by Iskras quick reaction, her right hand grabbing it out of the air only for her left to return fire with her rifle-high powered as it was, it too struggled with anything that wasn't the thin helmet plating, but it didn't matter much as Hellsing had taught her to aim for the head whenever possible. "Are you alright?" She asked the man behind her, tossing the spear aside.

"Y-yes. Thank you, Ma´m." The soldier replied, a bit twitchy and obviously not too keen on being part of this battle anymore.

"No need to thank. Pay me back instead- by killing twice as many as they kill ours." Iskra muttered, taking her rifle in both hands again and popping off a few shots here and there, but quickly moving on through the trench to get to Captain Winters.

"Gnh." Mato grunted, having parried a sword strike coming for her head by bringing her SMG up, her revolver drawn by the other hand to quickly get the enemy soldier off of her — a shot to the knee, then one into his helmet. "How many of those bastards are there?!"

"Enough of them!" Abby shouted back, trying to keep up with the swords that were coming for her, dodging the spears the best she could- though one already struck its target, she merely broke it off and left it there for now. A large hand patted Mato on the back, and the girl spun on her heel to point her weapons back- at Rayna, who returned a smirk and a chuckle. "Need help?"

"Much appreciated, big girl." Mato exhaled, only to turn around again, firing twice at approaching soldiers, once for each head, until the third one received a click from her now empty revolver. A deafening boom from Raynas rifle finished him off instead, as Mato tucked the revolver away, giving her a wink and leaping aside at the next spear heading for her.

"This... this cant go on for much longer." Seras muttered, seeing the situation slowly deteriorate around her. She was holding her own just fine, they weren't very strong, but Hellsings troops weren't going to last forever and the enemy invasion showed no sign of slowing or thinning down. With another cannon shot, she pierced two men in a row, felling them, before turning on her radio to reach headquarters. Rather than reaching Integra directly however, she listened in on a conversation already ongoing.

"At least we know what we're up against now." Integra replied to a previous explanation of the situation. "That's the good thing... the bad thing is that we are not prepared. Captain, how much more time can you buy our reinforcements?"

Alex sighed, with a few gunshots in between. "An hour, maybe. Grenades are just about out, and after that who knows how many more come up that staircase. Perhaps two hours if we start counting bodies, three if you're willing to sacrifice some of your finest. How long until they get there?"

Integra sank into a chair, burying her face in one hand, and digging the fingers through her hair. "The army´s initial force is five to six hours away. The navy could be within range in a couple hours, but you dont want to be there when they are- they've gotten authorization to bombard the Stonehenge site with Tomahawk missiles. No word from the air force yet- they're still waiting for the weather to clear."

"We don't have that much time, Sir. We have to retreat and regroup. Find a way to defend from somewhere else in this muddy, sloped ass end of nowhere."

"I know." Integra sighed, closing her eye and trembling slightly. "Tell your men to form strong points, barricade the roads and fortify, a mile apart from each other. Take whatever resources you have left and use them to protect access to the cities and villages beyond- if they decide to go across the fields, it might buy us time given the muddy countryside."

"Understood." "Yes, Ma´m." Both Alex and Seras replied one after another, which let to a moment of silence. "Seras? You were listening this whole time?"

Before she could answer, Integra interrupted them. "That's good. Seras, i have special instructions for your team. Divert the enemy´s attention towards you, protect the retreat of the soldiers as long as you can. Kuroshira and Sevchenko are needed for another mission elsewhere, we have a driver ready for them in front of the visitor center. Do not fret... i'll do whatever i can to get you the help you need."

"Of course, Integra. You always do." Seras replied, using her closest friend´s first name for once, only to press her lips together and pause. "Are you going to ?"

"I have to. If anyone is prepared to deal with this, its them."

The last grenade left the tube, and the launchers fell silent- quickly, the soldiers manning the guns abandoned them, grabbing rifles and joining the remaining men in making way for the armored transports. Out of every eight men in a section, six retreated and two fired at the enemy to keep them off their backs. However, it was not so easy... with the barrage stopped, nothing was in the way of the enemy´s full force from coming up, five men at once in ranks walked up the stairs, rank by rank, spears thrown at the escaping soldiers, occasionally striking true.

Rayna´s rifle had its work cut out, firing shot after shot down the ranks, Iskra and Abby resorted to hand grenades while Mato jumped down the trench to have a few seconds of peace, reloading her revolver and unloading it nearly just as fast, firing at the approaching enemy before heading out of the trench again. "ISKRA! Get your ass over here, we have our orders!"

Reluctant, the russian pressed her lips together and threw one last grenade, then rushed off down the trench line to join up with Mato.

Within minutes, the battlefield was getting overwhelmed with numbers, and Seras had to take drastic measures in order to contain them for a little longer- both of her arms became black plasma and ramming them into the ground, she turned what remained of Stonehenge into a pincushion, stabbing and impaling soldiers where she could before retracting her arms again and dashing into their ranks to break their necks and rib cages with the sheer force of punching, darting left and right at speeds unable to see by the human eye to avoid getting slashed or thrown down...

...then, the chasm widened, nearly reaching the trench. This was necessary, as the next soldier coming out was something else entirely- eight foot tall and covered in metal scales, from top to bottom, it was a titan that stood before Seras. The sword wielding soldiers respectfully made way for the giant, as his body stomped towards her with surprising speed- barely enough time to grab hold of her rifle and fire off a few rounds at it.

The shells penetrated...and then, nothing happened. The holes they made shallow, nothing coming out the other end.

Closer inspection revealed that the beast seemed to be made of overlapping plates and scales all the way through, with small strands of muscle and tissue holding each plate together to the rest and making movement possible. If it had anything like a heart or a brain, it was deeply concealed underneath dozens of layers of metal, cocooned in against any form of attack.

"Hey, Seras, need help with this one?" Rayna called out, firing off a couple of rounds of her pistol at the soldiers to try and keep them busy, but her friends quick reaction almost made her flinch.

"No! You and Abby get into position with the other troops- i'll join you soon! This one´s mine..."

Rayna shrugged, but fired once more before leaving the trench as well, following the other soldiers, while Seras stared down the titan of steel, which stopped in front of her, balling a fist and bringing it up to its chest, punching against it once to show how hard it was.

"Tough guy, huh..." Seras brought out, tossing her rifle back into the trench and rushing towards it, her arm cocking back for a full powered punch, something that could throw cars across a street.

Her fist impacted the beast and it, alongside her arm, exploded into gore as it was the only thing that was yielding to the force it produced.

Seras´s favor was returned in kind by a punch of the beast itself, its fist the size of her torso, flinging her nearly a mile across onto the roof of the visitor center.

"Section one to three, you take the high road! Four through six, the road west, five to nine head down that same road east!" Winters shouted at the remaining officers lined up in front of the center- three of them had fallen in combat already, their men were split up amongst the remaining sections rather quickly to not lose time. "Rayna, you´re with the lower western route- the other two take a machine gun each and position them! Abigail, you´re with me!"

"Yes Sir!" The ghoul saluted, only to blush and take her hand back down as nobody else did, they just turned and went to their respective units as quickly as possible. "Uhm. Sorry."

"No need to be. Now´s not the time to be a perfectionist with drill... I hope Seras doesn't bite off more than she can chew, though." Alex muttered, placing a hand on Abby´s back and guiding her over to the truck they would be taking. He cringed, hearing the impact of the blonde on the roof behind them, but didn't dare to check. "For now, we need to buy the army some time to get into position, and prevent those bastards from marching on unharnessed. We won't be trying to stop them- Keeping a mobile barricade and retreating further back once they're in reach, that's all."

"Right... what about Mato though?" Abby brought up as she climbed into the truck, still clutching a sword she had borrowed.

"Those two, Lady Hellsing has a special assignment for. Apparently her coworkers dug up someone who might be able to help, and those two head there now... trust me, whoever it is, its better than the alternative." He remarked with a grumble, climbing aboard as well and shutting the door, before giving a banging punch to the other side of the cabin wall to let the driver know they were ready to go. "I bet she's already on the phone with Iscariot, negotiating. I dont want them anywhere near this battlefield, so let's hope those two girls manage to pull this off."

"Right..." The ghoul gulped, looking down. Iscariot wasn't going to let her live, regardless of how tamed and human like she was. The mere hint of vampire blood in her veins was enough for them to execute her without second guessing. She fell silent for the rest of the drive, gazing down at the floor and hoping for the best.

End of Chapter Two


	5. 03: The Struggle for Control

Chapter Three

The Struggle for Control

Two hours later

Salisbury HQ

Refreshments were brought in every half hour to keep the members of the round table at their peak performance, but it could only do so much. Several of them had to call their families and told them not to worry, others were starting to crack under peer pressure. Integra, on her part, had gone through ten cigars, and was about to run out.

"The weather report said nothing about the storm over Stonehenge. Just that the region is cloudy with a chance of rain." Sir Berkley remarked, going over a few papers. "However the truth of the matter is, the storm seems to be expanding, gathering cloud formations from the surrounding areas like a magnet."

"Likely to recharge the clouds after all that lightning nonsense." Integra huffed. "I suppose that means the air force continues to be down?"

"Yes, the storm isn't so bad at ground level, but these are massive thunder clouds, Lady Hellsing. Instrumentation would become inoperable quickly, not to mention the winds at altitude are much stronger than-"

"Yes, i get it." The one eyed woman scoffed. "That means air support is impossible. What about the navy?"

"Two Type 45 destroyers are due to arrive within the hour, alongside a Type 23 frigates. Each carry about ten Tomahawk missiles, alongside about 40 more assorted missiles per ship. At worst, if the enemy gets 20 miles or closer to shore, each ship is outfitted with an auto loading 4,5inch cannon with over 300 rounds at their disposal." Naval Minister Higgins replied. "Four more vessels have answered our call, but they're at least a day away. We've ordered them to change course, just in case this takes longer than we thought."

"At this rate, it will... not to discredit our nations soldiers, but they're not trained to the degree of Helpings operatives." Integra muttered. "Regardless, we need them, any man you can spare. Hellsing is a special force of only a hundred strong, not built around the idea of a war. The Nazis exploited that, and it looks like they do the same."

Sir Donelly raised his voice. "So who are -they-? Do we have information yet? We cannot fight a war against something we know nothing about." Several others agreed on this, and Integra lit another cigar in the meantime.

"Information dried up about an hour ago, but what we know is that they're not human. They're monsters clad in ancient looking armor, but thick and strong enough to withstand rifle bullets up to a .50 caliber armor piercing slug. Their weapons and equipment looks primitive, but closer inspection shows welding, tempering and quenching techniques, their armor is cast steel in multiple, spaced layers- so they're anything but. We also know that these soldiers are not the only thing they have, as Captain Victoria told us of sort of 'Iron Giant', likely a golem of sorts, that's extremely strong and likely to resist any infantry weapon we have." Integra took a deep breath and looked about. "They're monsters that came from a portal leading downwards, where a hot fire emerges. I dont think i need to spell it out for anyone that we are up against Hell itself."

"But... aren't demons from hell supposed to have horns and such?" One of the waiters, overhearing this, spoke up- receiving a glance from some, but Integra merely exhaled.

"They do. Once their helmets were blown off or removed, it was visible that their inhuman, half reptilian faces have horns on their head- those were chopped off of the soldiers, but perhaps their higher ranking commanders still have them. Again, i don't think we have seen their full potential yet- this was merely the initial wave. Like pawns in a chess game, you send out your weakest first, saving your more capable riders, towers and queen for more strategic moves. I'd hate to see what they're truly capable of, so let's make this quick, gentlemen. How long until the tanks arrive?"

"Last we've heard, about two to three hours from now. The national guard has responded and the Royal Marines are sending two platoons of their own, but they won't make it today. Neither will the rest of the Army, they're still scrambling what they can, now that its obvious that we need more than just this."

A human shape impacted against the wall of the visitor center, as once again the first of the Iron Giant slapped Victoria away like a fly. The vampire was starting to get tired of it, but at the same time, she saw little options otherwise than to keep harassing him so that their troops could escape.

Wiping a bit of dirt off of her uniform, she got back up and looked around- while they were fighting, a good 300 men had arrived through the stairway, lining up in columns and getting into a formation- she had to end this, fast, and get those men out of commission, or they would likely run into the Hellsing troops while they weren't ready.

"Ugh!" She was knocked off of her feet by the giant stomping down, the earth cracking and part of the building collapsing around her- her trusty cannon was no use at the moment, she had spent the magazine in it and reloading would take some time, time she didn't have.

"Grr... You're getting on my nerves, you big dumb brute!" Seras snarled, dashing over to a previous position of Hellsings men, behind one of the heavy grenade launchers... hopefully, she thought, heavy enough to knock the golem down, so she could now through their infantry.

With black matter encompassing the weapon, she lifted it off the ground and over her head, throwing it at the golem in a high arc. No sooner than that, she shot across the battlefield once more, fetching another one and throwing it as well, a third one quickly following... the fourth one had been destroyed as the portal opened, and it didn't seem like it would hold up to being thrown without breaking in two.

Not that it mattered, as it seemed like she was throwing pebbles at a brick wall. The heavy equipment rammed against him and briefly caused him to stop, but his sheer mass was many times that of the launchers and it did little more than halt his advance for a brief moment... still, it bought her enough to pick up Hydra and its ammunition, ejecting the empty magazine and lining up the next one.

The giant seemed to realize that what she was going to do might actually hurt him, and proceeded to kick the launchers away into the field, charging towards Seras with large, heavy steps.

Ker-clack- steel smoothly slid against steel and the bolt of her cannon slid into its firing position, with Seras´s right arm lifting it up to her hip. "Your big fat body has pretty starky legs, doesn't it?!"

One after another, she barraged the left leg of the giant with gunfire- little by little it chipped away at the mass of the metal limb, until near the end of the magazine the leg could no longer support the weight of the creatures body and broke off, causing it to fall over on its side with a thunderous roar, like a fallen tree.

"Never skip leg day." Seras huffed, tossing the cannon aside to charge in for a killing blow by hand, now that she could climb up onto the monster more easily.

However the beast was far from defeated, as seconds later she found herself grabbed by a massive metal hand, tightly gripping her and trying to squash her body under its digits. She was about to turn into bats to escape, when up close and personal she noticed something in one of the holes made by cannon fire earlier.

Flesh, tiny strands of muscle and tissue holding the overlapping plates of metal together and articulating them. The topmost layer had almost none, but inside the many plates were all interconnected and went in all directions at once... she had to act, fast, as she could feel her pelvis breaking under the pressure with her ribs following suit.

"GGHgnnnnAAAAH!"

Seras slammed her fist into the hole she found, where it turned into black matter- matter which could slice even the smallest flesh and fit between the tiniest gaps, once it found one... and where flesh was, there was a potential gap. From muscle to muscle it ripped and it tore its way through the giant in mere seconds, its body collapsing under its own mass quickly after with its arm falling off uselessly, no longer attached to anything.

Seras fell to the floor, gasping for breath and reforming her broken body, as the surrounding soldiers began to close in...

"Victoria?!" Her radio turned back on. "Seras, can you hear me? The navy has targeted your location with a missile strike... evacuate the area and meet up with the rest of the troops!" Alex´s voice was urgent, and Seras could see why. In the distance, flares of fire were emerging over the horizon... no doubt, rocket motors bringing their payload skywards.

Getting back on her feet, the vampire´s left arm turned into a large, sickle shaped blade and with a turn of her heel she cut herself a path to pick up her cannon before she would run off- though the newest arrival out of the stairway made her stop and gawk.

It was a four legged creature, bloated and disfigured in every respect- it hardly even had a face, with eyestalks like a snail and a hairless, skinless body of bared muscle and organs... more bizarrely, as soon as she turned to face it, the bloated back of the creature burst open with gore splattering across- two creatures emerged from it, much more threatening to look at.

They resembled a praying mantis, though sharp metal scythes were attached to the ends of their limbs rather than anything biologic. Four wings lifted them up off the ground and skyward, quickly ascending upwards until Seras could barely even see them anymore... a second bloated creature did the same, two more flying beasts reaching skyward and Seras nearly had rushed off to get to her team, when an earth shattering explosion shook her to the core.

Hot fire kissed her skin and flaming debris rained down- a second explosion followed suit, all at different altitudes in the sky. A third missile didn't explode but got knocked off course, flying off into the british countryside rather than ramming into the stairway- something which would give Abby quite a scare as it came down a bit left of them. The demons were aware of what was happening, it seemed- the flying beasts had gone on a suicide path with the missiles headed towards them.

"S-ras?" The radio crackled. "V-t-ria! Respond, Victoria!" Alex called, and Seras had to take a second to shake off a bit of flame off of her shoulder, before she could finally pick up her ammo pouch and gun... no sooner had she done that, did she dash away at speeds human eyes could not trace.

Seras came to a halt next to Rayna, singed, battered and dirty, but Hellsings own giant still gave her a thumbs up as she was setting up her rifle, pointing down towards the stairway. They were about two miles away from their previous position, their armored trucks blocking the road and providing a bit of cover while Raynas and Seras´s guns would provide firepower over long range... the other two positions had a heavy machine gun each, they would have to make due with this. Behind the trucks, they had unloaded every munition crate they brought to make sure they could keep the defense going for as long as possible- Seras´s first stop, as she had spent quite a bit of ammo trying to stop the giant and had no other weapon apart from her cannon.

"Done playing with that big bastard?" Rayna snarked, tilting her head slightly. "You sure love to take my fun away."

"That was anything but fun. He threw me into a building, you know." Seras replied with a huff, setting own her cannon on its bipod for a shooting position, a belt of 20mm shells slung over her shoulder to reload her magazines with, but then pressed her radio to respond to Alex. "Victoria here. I'm alright, but the missile attack was a failure. They've got flying creatures that just did a kamikaze stunt on the Tomahawks- almost like they bloody knew what those were."

"Shit- Not what i wanted to hear, Seras- together with our supply of Ma Deuce ammunition dwindling it makes for a grim defense scenario. But good to hear you're alive. Listen, we're going into radio silence until we can be sure we aren't tapped into by those... demons. I'll let HQ know and from that point on, each position is independent, got it?"

"Roger that." Seras sighed, getting on her fours, then lying down prone to get behind her gun and load it. "I hope Mato and Iskra have more luck than we do."

A few kilometers away from the site, one of Hellsings smaller transport vehicles, essentially a modified Land Rover SUV, drove through the countryside towards its destination, some thirty miles further inland. On the back seats, Mato Kuroshira and Iskra Sevchenko were both distracting themselves from their inability to help their friends fight- the russian was reloading her magazines, while Mato put bullets back into the spent speed loaders for her revolver with a Katana on her lap. Both were silent, focused on themselves... until Iskra finally broke that spell.

"You're very calm and focused, Kuroshira, despite our situation. Most others would begin to panic and fear for their lives when not tasked with anything." She said, looking up to her and tapping her magazine against the door to make sure the bullets were correctly seated.

"I'm not afraid to die. If you're afraid of death, Hellsing ain't the job for you." She replied with a side gaze, tucking speed loaders away and proceeding to do the same with her own magazines. "Life already took everything i loved away before. What i have now is just something to fill the void."

"Hm. Not the best way to live your life." Iskra replied with a faint frown. "If you barely escaped death, you should see it as a second chance and make the most of it."

Mato nodded, pointing a finger to the russian woman. "Exactly. That's what i'm doing- living everyday as if it's my last. No holding back- if i end up regretting that i didn't do something, then i wasted my life with hesitation. Call me a slut all you like, but flirting, dancing and lots of sex feels a damn lot better than just sitting there at Hellsing, waiting for the next call to action."

The older woman shook her head a bit, repressing a smirk at that logic. She slid the glove off of her left hand, looking at it and working each of the digits of it... black parkerized metal, mixed with carbon fiber plates, intricately built to resemble a human limb, whirring faintly at every move... her arm had artificial muscles, but nothing beat the precision of servo motors for her digits. "I suppose. But there´s no void there if you have someone to sleep with, no?"

Mato sighed, tapping her mag against the sword lying on her lap. "Thanks for reminding me... that's the only thing i'd regret. Sex and flirts i have plenty, but a relationship never works out. The longest went for maybe a month, and that's only because the guy never had the guts to quit until then. You know i'm fishing on both sides of the pond, right? That's some abysmally bad track record."

"I get you. But its not what its made out to be, anyway. I... had someone, back then." Iskra sighed, closing her fist. "Back then, i kissed him goodbye as i went to deploy. Couldn't tell him where- not for that war we were fighting. The world wasn't supposed to know we were fighting the Ukraine, yet. A couple of days later our truck hits that IED, and when i come back out of the hospital about a year later, i find out he went out with another girl a week after i went to war." A long, frustrated sigh went through her, before shaking her head. "Stick with the sex, Kuroshira. Until you find that special someone."

"I thought i did." The japanese chuckled, looking up to the roof. "Thought i met an angel when that girl pulled me out of a dumpster behind my house, comforted me after my world had been burnt down... took me in to her family as her own... I tried asking her out, you know. Several times... flirted with her, all that. She was never interested in me, not in that way anyway. So... the special someone is out, being her best friend is all i can do."

"Captain Victoria might be a bit of a high target to aim for." Iskra frowned. "Her psyche might be too... damaged to make her interested in a relationship. Much less a physical one."

"Oh, i know her story, that childhood trauma and all... hell, she lost everything she had more than once, with nobody to catch her. Just being able to comfort Seras would be great, but she blocks it all away, being a strong, grown up girl and all that." Mato shrugged finally, putting her magazine away after having held onto it for quite a bit. "If nothing else, Iskra, we can make sure to be there for each other, right? I make sure to watch your back, you watch mine, and we both make it out alive. No need to make any last wishes or regret things if nobody dies."

"I'm not into a girl like you, if that was meant to be a flirt, Kuroshira." Iskra rose a brow. "But if we both survive, then i'm buying you a drink. Or two."

"Heh, gotcha."

Mato reached her fist out to Iskra, and recieved a metal fist bump in return.

"The navy confirmed that the missiles failed to reach their target. They're preparing a second strike as a saturation attack, firing every Tomahawk missile they have to try and overwhelm their defense to get a hit in. Even a single hit should destroy the target."

Integra nodded, sipping on a whiskey she had brought in to try and keep her nerves from going off, only to glance back at Sir Berkley. "How long?"

"Thirty minutes from now, Ma´m."

"Thirty minutes?!" She repeated, standing up with a scowl. "Our men need the fire support now! Why are they waiting half an hour when we have a thousand men an hour coming out of that bloody hole?!"

Berkley twitched, inching back a bit and gulped. "They... they need to re calibrate their targeting, Sir, each missile has to follow a different flight path and the attack has to be coordinated between the three ships to have the correct timing, to have the intended effect..."

"... Ah." Integra blinked, slowly sinking back into her seat, and running a hand over her forehead. "Apologies, i... the nerves are going through with me. Carry on."

"Since the weather isn't clearing up, but the storm is expanding we can't depend on the Royal Airforce. We're currently rallying a brigade of soldiers from the surrounding barracks and outposts, but that force will take between two days and a week to arrive at the battlefield. Given the Richardsson-Whitby Secret Act of 2001, we can call upon a limited amount of Trident nuclear tipped missiles to bomb the Stonehenge site with, should the saturation attack not work- their airbrush capability should make it impossible for the enemy to employ their kamikaze strategy against them."

Nervous mumbles went through the room as multiple people were discussing what might happen next, if they had underestimated the enemy- or overestimated Hellsings capabilities. Evacuation plans were thrown around, requests for military assistance from abroad, even the nuclear option- until a more experienced man spoke up. "Lady Hellsing." Sir Dunshire began, slowly and calm. "I think it is about time you call the Vatican for assistance."

Giovanni Maria Maqube enjoyed himself, looking at the older parts of the Vatican city from the balcony of Iscariots headquarters, near the Peters Basilica. The evening sun kissed his scarred skin, though he could feel the distant troubles even here... evil was conducting its vile plan, with a storm brewing that would swallow the world if not for him.

"Bishop Maqube." a muffled voice that had trouble pronouncing words spoke behind him. "We've loaded everything into the helicopters. The men are ready to leave at your word- 120 of the Vaticans finest."

Maqube raised his hand, nodding faintly. "Excellent. Thank you, Heinkel. Now only one thing remains, before the Lords work can be done..."

"And what's that?" The austrian brought up with a barsh tone. "And you've yet to tell us what we're heading out for. If its another crusade, then you know better than me that we're not ready."

A shake of his head was the reply, before he finally turned- the bishop who´s face was marked, a large, very visible scar trailing from forehead to chin, spreading out across the arch of his nose and underneath the eyes. A wound from war, when he and Heinkel fought together against the Nazi menace. Only... he had grown older.

"My goodness, you're pushy today, Heinkel. It's a joyous day. Be happy- our Lords plan is finally being revealed, and in motion." He was smiling, from ear to ear, calm and content as he could be. This irritated the woman even further- Heinkel scowled with half of her face, the other half firmly covered by a fresh set of bandages. Her hair had bleached out a bit, but apart from that- she had not aged a day in those twenty years, her body still as fresh and at the peak of its performance. Unlike him, Heinkel had chosen to bear the burden and follow Paladin Andersons path in becoming a regenerator- a man-made monster, created through numerous tinctures, spells, serums and many painful procedures. Her arm and leg, separated by Walter Dornez´s strings had been reconnected to her body, though her face, torn by a bullet from the Captain, could never heal through her regeneration- it could not restore what wasn't there, and even as disfigured as she was, Heinkel was too prideful for plastic surgery. She said it went against her religion to alter what God created, but in reality it was merely for the same reason why she never wore makeup. If anything it made people respect her more, and made people afraid to look her in the face.

She scoffed further. "What are you talking about? The Lords plan? ...It's another Crusade, isn't it?"

"Do not take me for a foolish gambler like Maxwell, Heinkel." Maqube narrowed his eyes, and put a hand down on the desk before him. "That 'crusade' ruined our reputation within the catholic church for years, and critically weakened our position across the borders of Italy. Trying something like that for so little gain is nothing more than career suicide, not to mention the end of the 13th chapter. ...I'm talking about the Lords plan. The last four things."

Heinkel glanced at him, only to realize, her jaw dropping. "You... you dont mean..."

"Hell has come, Heinkel. Our state of purgatory has come to an end... a gate to Hell has opened and legions of vile demons are currently invading England. Hellsing is attempting to push them back, but you know how these incompetent amateurs fail at the littlest things." Maqube snickered, shaking his head again. "I intend to welcome His Greatness when he ascends down from heaven to cleanse the world and bring about his eternal reign... but i need you to be my vanguard, Heinkel. Mobilizing the Vaticans forces will take some time, Iscariot is much faster at moving out. I will join you with as many men as i can rally as soon as possible."

"Y...yes..." Heinkel stammered, her heart pounding in her chest... not with joy like Maqube, but fear. "So... have you... got the book...?"

"That i do." Maqube nodded, reaching into a drawer of his desk which produced an old, rough leather bound tome with wax seals keeping the pages shut. The seals were staggered, each one holding a few chapters together which would require the reader to break the seals one by one to read the book. The seals themselves were seven- and despite the book old enough to look like it might fall apart at any moment, the wax seals were strong and held the book tightly together. "Section Matthew works quickly. They brought it to me as soon as the first notice of the invasion arrived."

"I... i see. Then you need a lamb..." Heinkel muttered.

"Don't worry about that, i think i've got one. For now, i'm only waiting on one thing..."

Just as he said that, the phone rang, and he smirked, gesturing Heinkel to leave the room as he went to pick it up. "Lady Hellsing, i presume." 

End of Chapter 3


	6. 04: The Alchemist

Chapter four

The Alchemist

"Lady Hellsing, i presume?"

Integras fist balled up, and she glared ahead with her eye at the middle of the round table. As her fingers uncurled, she reached for a cigar, just to bite down on it. "Yes, Bishop Maqube. Since you were expecting my call, i´m guessing you´re aware of the situation."

The response was prompt. "Of course. We´ve been waiting for it for two thousand years, after all. Since they´re still contained within England, your people must be doing a very respectable job at detaining Hells legions." Maqube seemed amused, definitely in a good mood- which irritated Integra to no end.

"I wish that was the case. Hellsing is not built around a war, we don´t have the menpower nor resources to fight one... and our speciality is vampires and werewolves. If anyone on earth could deal with Hell, it would be... Iscariot." She paused, having to force herself to admit this.

"Very flattering, Signora. I suppose we would be. So, why would you be calling me...?"

"You damn well know why i call you!" Integra finally snapped, slamming her hand down on the table. "We can´t do this on our own- And when England falls, they will attack Europe on a wide front. A front you wont be able to hold back either! So we need to stand together now, and defeat them now, before this happens!"

Maqube chuckled. "My my, always this temper. My men are about to take off as we speak. With their helicopters, reaching the shores of England will be a matter of two hours, at most... but from what i hear, the storms over the region make air travel neigh impossible, no?"

"It would take a very skilled pilot." Integra muttered. "And a convoy of helicopters like yours would end up crashing into one another. You should have them set down somewhere in the neighbouring areas, somewhere near Salisbury." She exhaled. "And i´m warning you, Maqube, i´m giving you the benefit of doubt, because you aren´t Maxwell... but if you betray us, then-"

"Then what, Integra?" Maqube cut her off. "Gods kingdom is coming, and you people will burn in hell either way for what you´ve done, turning your back to the church and domesticating vampires! ...but he works in mysterious ways. Perhaps you will be saved... if blood is spilled for all mankind, your men and mine will both be saved. At this point, this far down the Lords plan... denominations do not matter anymore. It's merely Christianity against its mortal enemy."

Integra took a deep breath, and exhaled. "Very well. You are coming as well, aren´t you? To witness it firsthand when Angels come from the heavens? I´m in the town hall of Amesbury at the moment, our forward defense post. Join me."

Out at sea, three ships had sirens ringing in a flat, monotone manner, three times in a specific combination, while hatches opened on deck. One of those had been opened before and black soot was present on it, but these new ones were still pristine, and each of them had a missile poking out of them. Once the sirens ended, twenty-seven missiles shot into the sky, one after the other from three different ships with a distinct gap inbetween- all targeting the same spot on the map.

Stonehenge was abuzz with activity by this point, lines of soldiers ranking up, no less than four iron giants and several flying beasts were in the air above them. Seeing the attack on the horizon, most of those went out towards its origin, trying to intercept what was coming but it proved fruitless. The gap left between the firing sequence ensured that one missile exploding would not damage the next one incoming, and each detonation took out multiple beasts at once. This tactic worked for a couple warheads, after that, they started getting through and rained down on the stairway site.

Each Tomahawk carried nearly a ton of explosives, and the demons felt that. Even back at the Hellsing positions, they could see soldiers flying about, thrown like ragdolls by the force of the staggered blasts, and the iron giants disintegrated into shrapnel when struck by one. Gods own thunder couldn't be as loud as the barrage was at ground zero, and a mile away, Abby tried her best to press her ear protection down...yet still, even with all this the clouds did not clear up in the constant storm and rainfall.

"Confirmed hit on target. Repeat, target hit."

It did little to help. As the dust settled and came down with the rain, the former area of Stonehenge was a large series of craters which had brought any farmland up in flames and soot, but the stairway was still there- lower down and level with the ground. It was undamaged, and no sooner no more missiles came down did the next demons walk up the stairs to replace those that were killed.

Two hours later, dusk was setting in and what little light there was for Hellsings forces to work with soon became less and less available. Water was running in-between fields and asphalt roads, the rainfall turning the area more and more into a swamp, rather than argriculture... and the tank support was still over an hour away.

"Five columns approaching, Ma´m." A private reported back to Seras, who pressed her lips together at the news.

"I see them, thanks. ...damn it. We´ll hold fire until they get closer... once the northern flank starts firing at them, we´ll join in. Rayna?" The blonde turned her head towards the tall woman. Both of them were draped under a camouflage pattern plastic sheet to keep the rain away, lying on a soft foam mattress about half an inch thick to make sure they wouldn't sink into mud either- yet they were still soaked through from top to bottom. Seras almost welcomed the advance Hells legion finally made, it meant that they would soon have to change positions...though for that she would either have to break radio silence, or make her own decisions.

She dreaded the later.

"Fuck this job." Rayna grumbled. "I´m ready when you are, Victoria. But man, i was looking forward to a spa day in the whirlpool after this. By now, i don't want to see water again for the rest of the week."

"I hear you." Seras sighed, making sure her sights were lined up with the square enemy formations in the distance, then she waited.

Much further away, Iskra and Mato had just left their car to walk down a cobblestone path, past a fancy iron fence gate- a typical upper class home in the british countryside was their destination.

They were out of the storm, and in this part of England the weather was cloudy, but even that was a nice change from the cataclysmic weather of Stonehenge. After a bit of walking, a house approached in front of them past a little private park.

A two-story house near the cliffs leading to the Atlantic ocean, built in an older style that reminded of the Victorian era. In front was a rose garden with a large pond, large enough it needed a bridge to cross and gave the whole site a bit of a castle-like feeling, though it would never be deep enough to work as a moat.

"Something tells me whoever it is we´re expected to meet, they aren't poor people." Mato snarked, rolling her eyes slightly as she walked alongside Iskra.

"It doesn't matter to me if they´re rich or poor, so long they help us." The russian replied with a grumble. "If we went all this way for nothing but a false trail, heads will roll."

"Nah. This sort of house is exactly what you´d expect when you look up a mysterious person with knowledge they shouldnt have. Jules Verne had one of those, you know." Mato snickered, approaching the doorbell... or what she thought was one, it appeared to be just a sign. "Uh?"

Frieda Simone Desdemona von Haydenreich, it said- though lacking any options to ring, she tried knocking on the door instead.

It opened on its own, and a warm scent of herbs and flowers came from inside. "Hello...?"

"Ah, no need to be shy. Come in, you two."

Looking back at Iskra, who seemed just as confused as her, Mato eventually complied after a moment's pause.

The Victorian theme continued on the inside. Crimson carpets and walnut furniture, a grandfather clock in the corner which seemed to be working... their first impression was confirming that they had to be very well off to live here. A stairway went further up to the second level, but the voice seemed to come from further inside, so carefully, Mato proceeded. She almost cursed her heels for the noise they made, almost fearing that they were walking into some sort of trap, but coming into the livingroom, her spirits lifted a bit.

The livingroom seemed to be the conclusion to all the themes they had encountered so far- a well off lady with a thing for the Victorian era. Dark oak laminate floors, rustic looking walnut furniture and mellowing wallpaper formed the base, and whichever spot was free on the walls was hung with a rifle, shotgun or sometimes several handguns, all of them antiques in pristine condition. Black leather sofas and seats adorned an ornate, decorative rug, with a mahagoni table inbetween, forming a seating area opposite of the windows, a fireplace like one would find in a castle dominated the middle of the room, the opposite side was lined with bookshelves and racks of... things. Finally, the wall with the windows in featured a desk with a chair, the former currently full of a large chemistry set, under the watchful eyes of the house owner.

"Welcome, welcome. I´m sorry i couldn´t be at the door, but i need to watch this." Frieda, as it turned out, was a woman of supple curves, hidden in a sleek three-piece suit. Despite her grey hair, her name and her aristocratic behavior, she was no older than Iskra, or at least appeared that way- an eyepatch covered her left eye, while the right was a soft green color. She smiled back at them, whilst watching very carefully as chemicals gushed and bubbled from one side of a beaker to another. "Don´t worry, its not toxic, but if my timing is not absolutely spot on, the mixture will get into the sour spectrum rather than the base. ...three... two...one... And now!"

She cut the flame of a bunsen burner that had been running, and opened a valve to another chemical rushing in, which mixed in with the first to create a dark blue. She then turned it over, pouring it into another beaker which contained a yellow powder, and a fizzing reaction happened which gave off a light blue smoke... Mato quickly covered her face, though Frieda waved off, and after a moment, poured it into a flask with a cork on. "There we go- concentrated disulphuric acid with a trace of aurum fulminate, leave that to rest for 24 hours and i have a tincture that can kill any demon that gets this into their bloodstream." She winked, smiling as she finally walked over gracefully to greet them. "Please excuse my manners, but that was very important... Now, i´m Frieda von Haydenreich, Monster hunting is my expertise, with a side note of alchemy and a dabble in the arcane arts."

Before Mato could say anything, Frieda had reached out for her hand, lifting it up and kissing the back of it. "And i must be the most fortunate woman alive, if i´m being visited by such beautiful girls."

"A...ah...i´m... i´m flattered. And i´m Mato Kuroi." Mato stammered, not quite sure what to answer to such a high-class lady, taken aback by the whole thing... though she was taken more aback as Frieda then took her glove off to brush over Iskras cheek, cupping her chin and- before Iskra could try to shove her off, kissed her cheek.

"Wha..." The russian began, irritated. "Whats with that?! I would be fine with a kiss on the hand-"

"A kind gesture is quite pointless, my dear, if you cannot feel it. This might be beyond your personal space, i apologize, but it is sincere all the same."Frieda explained, letting go of her with a light smile.

Iskra was shocked, irritated, then finally looked down to her hand... and back up to Frieda. "How... Someone told you? You knew we were coming, but they told you this much?!"

"My dear... your whole body is vibrant with life and warmth... except for your arms. You may have hands, but they are not alive." Frieda replied, putting her glove back on while she gestured for the two to follow. "Now, lets not stand and talk like we´re in a great hurry to leave again. Have a seat- Would you like something to drink? Tea, coffee, perhaps something alcoholic?"

Mato followed her almost like she was on autopilot, deeply in thought... the woman might be a bit wierd, but if she could tell Iskras condition without even looking at her, and she could tell they were at the front door all the way from the livingroom, she might be the real deal. "M-Miss." She began.

"Frieda." Was the response, with a smile. "I´m only an aristocrat by title at this point."

"Fine...Frieda, we...we came here because we need your help, the demons of hell are going to overrun England if we don´t do something and..." She peeked over to the chemistry set, before sitting down on the red leather couch she was presented with. "...It looks like you already know and started preparing."

"Yes, the portal that has opened was not exactly subtle when it did- and something of that magnitude leaves little question about its origin. Although that said, it's nowhere near a solution." Frieda nodded, taking a seat opposite to the two. "You can kill as many demons as you like, there´s going to be more on the way. This is just something to be more potent against their stronger beings, once those arrive... and i fear it might not be ready by then."

"You´re talking a lot but we´ve got to start from the beginning." Iskra interjected, folding her hands over. "We´re running almost completely blind, so we need to know what you know. What we can expect, if this is going to end and how we beat them."

"Oh, i can start from the beginning, but you´re asking very difficult questions, my lovely." Frieda noted with a hint of worry. "Its not going to end and beating them may not be an option so much as surviving them long enough- but i digress, if you don't mind, i´ll bring some reference material."

She stood up, walking over to the stone chimney and tugged on a fire iron hung on it, which made the wall right next to it slide open. Beyond it was a long hallway of bookshelves, like a miniature library and it extended well into the second level.

"...Do you really need a secret room for your books?" Mato raised a brow. "I think if someone would break into your house, they´d be more interested in those-" She pointed at an antique revolver rifle on the wall, "than in a bunch of dusty books."

"You misunderstand. This wall is to protect me from the books, not vice versa. And the rifle you pointed to is a modern reproduction, worth only about five hundred pounds. My pistols, you see, they´re far more valuable." Frieda winked with a giggle, then fetched herself a ladder to climb up.

"Protect you from... whats a book going to do to you? ...Do i want to know?" Iskra raised a brow, and soon shook her head. "I probably don't."

"You ask for books about demons of hell, and yet you don't expect that sort of knowledge to be cursed or drawing you into a deal with them. You have a lot to learn if you´re going to fight the devils, my dear. Let us begin with the basics."

"Seras...!" Rayna shouted over the noise of gunfire, fetching another magazine from a crate. "They´re getting pretty close now...!"

"I NOTICED!" Seras shouted back angrily, manipulating her left arm to throw multiple hand grenades at once to suppress the attacking phalanx, but she soon had to pick up her rifle again to shoot down Mantis´s that approached from the skies. "Shit... Alex, do something... Do the first step, don't wait for me!"

"Captain Victoria, we need to start the retreat now or we wont have the time!" Lance Corporal Nelson reminded her, his assault rifle merely delivering suppressive fire half the time. "You need to give us orders!"

"Fine... FINE!" Seras briefly turned around, standing up out of her foxhole and shouted back at the men. "EVERYONE! Pack up your kit and get in the truck, one by one! Rayna and i hold positions until everybody is in! We´re moving three clicks east and take up defensive position in Amesbury!"

While she was saying that, two javelins slammed into her body, spearing her back to front, and a third one hit her head moments after she finished. One of the younger soldiers screamed, although Seras never hit the ground- merely, her body ceased to exist around the weapons, and reformed next to Rayna in a black mist. "Those things are getting annoying. How are you on ammo?"

"Two mags for the rifle. I´ve got some more for the big gun, but those are still in the truck... i´ll use those later." The tall woman grumbled, taking potshots at the line that came down the hill. "Better radio the HQ that they send us some resupply to Amesbury, or we´ll run out before long."

"...We´re still in radio silence though..." Seras pressed her lips together, picking up one of the javelins and throwing it back with all the force she could muster- but the shaft was too weak, the head broke off after piercing the second man in line.

"Since when are you going by the books? The fate of Hellsing depends on getting more ammo delivered, give her a brief shout out!" Rayna glanced at her for a moment, only to blink and dodge a spear that narrowly missed her head, ripping her cheek open- the wound healed slowly, but visibly. With a grumble, Rayna stood up, towering over Seras and providing an excellent target for the others- but the front lines had depleted their spears by now and were down to swords, charging forwards now that their enemy chose to stand. Rayna pulled out her pistol, Caerbannog- at first glance a normal pistol, it dwarfed anything in its class, a massive piece firing an incredible .66 caliber bullet with a core of depleted uranium- not to penetrate armor, but to make the already heavy bullet even heavier. It had a passing similarity to the legendary Jackal in a way- and it was not a coincidence. Much of the techniques to build that giant handgun had been used again, to build a pistol suitable enough for the powerful hybrid woman. "Make that call, Seras! I´ll handle this!"

"...Alright. Be careful." Seras nodded, as Caerbannog made its first, loud and snappy bark, accompanied by a bright blue muzzle flash. As she ducked down to engage her radio, it barked five more times, each one tearing a hole in at least two, sometimes three men at once, the core becoming a sharp shrapnel as it bore through their armor and continuing out the back of them.

"Salisbury HQ, please come in, this is Captain Victoria."

The radio in the middle of the round table came to life, and Integra exhaled a visible sigh of relief. Tensions were rising across the room, some of the men were not too happy about involving Iscariot, others were starting to feel the pressure, yet others were complaining why Hellsing couldn't handle this- although they were soon reminded that the Navy couldn't handle it, either.

"This is HQ. Whats the situation, Victoria? We´ve heard nothing from you for a while."

"Thats correct, Ma´m. The enemy was aware of our missile attack, so we guessed that they would somehow monitor our radio traffic and called for radio silence." Seras explained quickly. "Though even then, our new defensive positions are about to be overrun... we´re retreating further back, to the town of Amesbury. There should be a lot of open windows and houses we can hole up in- that to me sounds like a better idea than trying to hold them off in the open, in the freezing rain... i might be able to withstand that, but most of the team is human afterall." Seras paused, as Rayna had reloaded and began firing again. "Since the tanks arrive from the west, i figured retreating east could make them drive the enemy into our flank, where we can pick them off in the streets. Their big line formations wont help them there."

"Yes, very good, Seras. What about Captain Winters?" The million dollar question.

"I havent heard of him since the beginning of radio silence. I can see they´re still there fighting, but i might have to actually go over there and ask him whats going on at this rate." She sighed. "We´re low on ammunition, Ma´m. We need urgent resupply at Amesbury... can you organize something there? Regular ammunition should do just fine, silver doesn't seem to give us any advantage here."

A brief glance at the right man, and a nod was received. "Noted, Seras, it's on the way. Alongside some support for you- 120 men and women from Iscariot are coming your way in helicopters, they´ll arrive near Amesbury. I told them to follow the path to Stonehenge, but if you set up post in the city then that should be a good spot to assign them positions. I know your reservations against them, and i can imagine none of your men and women are enthused either, but they´re the best we´ve got."

Unbeknownst to Integra, rather than getting angry or being scared, Seras rejoiced at those news, her heart, had it been beating, skipped and she almost felt weak kneed. A certain feeling spread within her which she seldom felt in public- rather, one that she felt whenever she thought of someone, alone in her coffin. "Thats...thats great, Ma´m. I was actually worried how we would hold an entire city with what we´ve got. Of course we should be careful about their intentions, and keep our backs to the wall, but at this point i´d almost rather have them than the tanks."

"Good to hear. Now, see to it that the other two positions are aware of the plans too. The last thing we need is a disorganized retreat."

"Will do, Ma´m. Have you heard of Mato?"

Integra pressed her lips together. "No... but i hope i will soon."

"As we all know, the Lord works in mysterious ways, and the intentions of heaven are often inexplicable... but the intentions of hell are almost always aimed at destruction and mayhem. More so, though, their interests lie in gathering bodies, either dead or alive, for their armies. When they have defeated mankind, they will no doubt have enslaved most of them- or ground up their bodies into their basic biomass to create life from non-life." Frieda explained, reciting from a book. "The greatest paradox in the myth of creation is that hell seems to be able of the same things heaven is- where heaven can create life and everything surrounding it, they are also more than capable at destroying it again on a whim. Hell is more than capable at destroying life and the land that gives habitat to it, but its ability to create evermore disgusting, repulsive creations of its sick creators suggest that they could, if they wanted, create life again in their image if they so chose... and perhaps, they will, once their conquest is completed."

"Well that's nice. In our next life, we´ll be reborn to suck Satan's thorny horsecock." Mato replied in a dry manner, sipping on a glass of Coca cola while her leg, crossed over the other, was impatiently swinging back and forth. "Where do we get to the part that lets us beat Hell before that happens?"

"Patience, my dearest. Although you have quite the imagination..." Frieda flipped the page with a wink to Mato. "The gates to hell open when the seal that holds them shut break, although one seal breaking may not imply that the others break as well. However, should one hellgate be released, it cannot be closed shut again by mortal means, nor destroyed, as it does not exist on the same plane of existence as the ground surrounding it. It would be like trying to destroy a rainbow by hitting it with a sword."

"That explains why the missile attack did nothing." Iskra grumbled. "Not good."

"An open hellgate will render the seals of the others weaker, as the magic that holds them shut has to fight magic that tries to destroy the seal from both sides- it is foretold by the highest of angels that at most, they will hold for six days, as the Sabbath is the day in which their magic weakens dramatically and they will have to open a gate to keep control of the rest. At the same time, Hell will not rush things- wave attacks are their speciality, and a single open gate may only serve as a distraction, to slowly grind up and use up their enemies forces and weaken them for the full scale assault that happens once the second gate opens. If a third should ever open, the skies will darken forever, a fourth will let the oceans boil. Gate five brings about the strongest of the legions, and the sixth brings about the end of all life on earth. Once the dust settles, and the earth has returned to the barren rock it once was, He who is many will emerge from the seventh and final gate, and he will rule forever more."

Mato´s mouth was left open, while Iskras eyes narrowed to slits. "So in basic terms... if we don't do something fast, six weeks from now the world will end."

End of Chapter 4.


End file.
